mercenary

[mur-suh-ner-ee]

adjective

1. working or acting merely for money or other reward; venal.

   Synonyms: covetous, avaricious, acquisitive, grasping
   Antonyms: unselfish, idealistic, altruistic

2. hired to serve in a foreign army, guerrilla organization, etc.

noun

plural

mercenaries 

1. a professional soldier hired to serve in a foreign army.

2. any hireling.

mercenary

/ ˈmɜːsɪnərɪ, -sɪnrɪ /

adjective

1. influenced by greed or desire for gain

2. of or relating to a mercenary or mercenaries

noun

1. a man hired to fight for a foreign army, etc

2. rare,  any person who works solely for pay

Other Word Forms

• mercenarily adverb
• mercenariness noun
• nonmercenary adjective
• unmercenarily adverb
• unmercenariness noun
• unmercenary adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of mercenary¹

First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English mercenarie, from Latin mercēnnārius “working for pay, hired worker, mercenary,” perhaps from earlier mercēd(i)nārius (unrecorded), from mercēdin- (unrecorded), variant stem of mercēs “payment, wage” (akin to merx “goods”; merchant ) + -ārius -ary

Word History and Origins

Origin of mercenary¹

C16: from Latin mercēnārius, from mercēs wages

Example Sentences

He expelled French troops, and brought in mercenaries from Russia's Wagner group, which is under Moscow's defence ministry.

Read more on BBC

The UN peacekeeping force and French counter-terror forces deployed in 2013 in the wake of the uprising have left and the military government has hired Russian mercenaries instead.

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Its protagonist, a wandering mercenary, seeks revenge on a group of renegades who murdered her family.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

A thousand Wagner mercenaries first arrived in Mali in late 2021, with the nation’s government paying $10 million a month for help fighting the insurgents.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

The current Waterboys are a crack team of musical mercenaries up there to play the sheer hell out of each and every song, no matter what era it first originated in.

Read more on Salon

Related Words

• acquisitive 
• selfish 
• unscrupulous