mercenary

noun mer·ce·nary \ ˈmər-sə-ˌner-ē , -ne-rē \

|Updated on: 11 Jun 2018

Examples: mercenary in a Sentence

Definition of mercenary

plural mercenaries

: one that serves merely for wages; especially : a soldier hired into foreign service

mercenaries who guaranteed the success of the rebellion
—B. F. Reilly

See mercenary defined for English-language learners

See mercenary defined for kids

Examples of mercenary in a Sentence

an army of foreign mercenaries

Recent Examples of mercenary from the Web

Dr Davies and his colleagues were there because, to bolster Colombia’s still-small regular army of pertinent experts, the country’s government has recruited several groups of foreign mercenaries.

— The Economist, "Colombia’s national survey of its biodiversity is ambitious," 17 May 2018
Sandford has been working on Lucas for more than two dozen books, and by now Lucas can handle just about anything, including a group of bad-apple mercenaries.

— marilyn stasio, New York Times, "A Politician With Real Killer Instincts," 4 May 2018
Secretly, with Kennedy’s approval, the Central Intelligence Agency financed and trained an exile force of 1,500 Cuban mercenaries — called Brigade 2506 — to retake Cuba from the communists.

— rick anderson, latimes.com, "For generations, Cuba's Fidel and Raul Castro vexed U.S. presidents," 19 Apr. 2018
Russia continues to back Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, providing military equipment — including air-defense systems — and has sent Russian troops and paid Russian mercenaries to Syria.

— zachary fryer-biggs, Vox, "Russia defiant after Syria bombing, warns of “consequences”," 14 Apr. 2018
In February, though, U.S. warplanes pummeled a group of Russian mercenaries that were threatening American backed fighters in eastern Syria, an episode the Kremlin sought to play down.

— thomas grove, WSJ, "U.S., Russia Trade Threats Over Syria Strikes," 11 Apr. 2018
President Nicolás Maduro routinely accuses the United States of being behind plots to topple his socialist administration and of dispatching mercenaries to assassinate him.

— jim wyss, miamiherald, "Honeymoon in hell: U.S. newlywed jailed in Venezuela as possible spy | Miami Herald," 7 July 2016
If economically progressive Republicans start to contest the party’s fiscal agenda — from inside its own tent — the GOP could quickly become a less reliable mercenary in the one percent’s class war.

— eric levitz, Daily Intelligencer, "Red-State Teachers Just Scored a Victory That Could Transform the GOP," 23 May 2018
Here's where things stand: Wade Wilson/Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds) is now a very successful mercenary with a thriving career in killing very bad people and a steady relationship with his girlfriend, Vanessa (Morena Baccarin).

— joshua rivera, GQ, "Deadpool 2 Review: It Spends Too Much Time Getting Itself Off," 19 May 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'mercenary.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Origin and Etymology of mercenary

Middle English, from Latin mercenarius, irregular from merced-, merces wages — more at mercy

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First Known Use: 14th century

in the meaning defined above

See Words from the same year

Other Military Terms

bivouac, logistics, petard, salient, sally, supernumerary, tactical

mercenary

adjective

Definition of mercenary

1 : serving merely for pay or sordid advantage : venal; also : greedy

2 : hired for service in the army of a foreign country

—

mercenarily

play \ˌmər-sə-ˈner-ə-lē, -ˈne-rə-\ adverb

—

mercenariness

play \ˈmər-sə-ˌner-ē-nəs, -ˌne-rē-\ noun

See mercenary defined for English-language learners

Examples of mercenary in a Sentence

His motives in choosing a career were purely mercenary.
they were a mercenary couple, who defined themselves not by what they were but by what they owned

Recent Examples of mercenary from the Web

Pitt plays a mercenary named Vanisher who enlists in Deadpool's bedraggled team called X Force (like X-Men, but gender-nonspecific).

— rebecca farley, refinery29.com, "Which Ocean's 11 Star Had The Better Superhero Movie Cameo?," 18 May 2018
And Woody Harrelson, as Han's mercenary mentor, is, well, Woody Harrelson, which is not a bad thing at all.

— julie hinds, Detroit Free Press, "The breakout star in 'Solo' is L3-37, a female droid for our turbulent Time's Up era," 20 May 2018
But production ramped up again closer to the final years of the war, as Carthage minted more silver coins to pay its mercenary forces.

— kiona n. smith, Ars Technica, "Greenland ice cores track Roman lead pollution in year-by-year detail," 15 May 2018
The game sets you up as a mercenary in the middle days of the same universe as MechWarrior, but instead of piloting multi-ton titans, the player now assumes the role of a mercenary leader.

— steven strom, Ars Technica, "BattleTech is a more tactical, punishing view of mech battling," 3 May 2018
The information operation is funded by a Putin-friendly oligarch, Yevgeny Prigozhin, who just also happens to control a mercenary outfit known as Wagner that has contract troops in Ukraine and Syria.

— trudy rubin, Philly.com, "Report from St. Petersburg: The real story from the Russian troll factory is not what you think | Trudy Rubin," 26 Apr. 2018
The property began life in the early 1990s as a series of stories and novels by Polish writer Andrzej Sapkowski, focused on the fantasy-world adventures of mercenary monster-hunter Geralt of Rivia.

— david z. morris, Fortune, "'The Witcher' Is Coming to Netflix in 2020, Writer Confirms," 21 Apr. 2018
But with each passing week, Pokora became a little bit more mercenary.

— brendan i. koerner, WIRED, "The Young and the Reckless," 17 Apr. 2018
Billy’s boss, the vulgar and mercenary crone Mrs. Mullin (Margaret Colin), couldn’t give two figs for the happiness her joy machine gives to the community: her eyes are on the green, and on Billy.

— junot díaz, The New Yorker, "The Dark Fantasies of “Carousel”," 17 Apr. 2018