mercenary

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

|Updated on: 6 Aug 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

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Examples of mercenary in a Sentence

an army of foreign mercenaries

Recent Examples of mercenary from the Web

Their hunt throws them into conflict with bands of mercenaries, corrupt police officers, and some of the gods that inhabit Dinétah.

— andrew liptak, The Verge, "Trail of Lightning is a breathtaking Native American urban fantasy adventure," 26 June 2018
But they are trapped by a band of mercenaries, a plot intended to mirror real-life animal poaching.

— jake coyle, The Christian Science Monitor, "'Jurassic World,' 'Incredibles 2' make for Hollywood's fourth-largest weekend ever," 25 June 2018
Every few moments, V and her accomplice, a vulgar mercenary named Frankie, had 2-3 dialogue options pop up.

— sam machkovech, Ars Technica, "Cyberpunk 2077 world premiere: 50 minutes of William Gibson-level insanity," 14 June 2018
That was glaringly obvious in early February when U.S. forces killed more than 200 Russian mercenaries who tried to attack a base held by U.S. and mainly Kurdish forces in the oil-rich Deir Ezzor region.

— Bloomberg.com, "Syria Strikes Lock U.S. and Russia Into a New Era of Animosity," 16 Apr. 2018
Even though the Kremlin enacted a law during the Ukraine crisis in 2015 to make battlefield casualties a secret, the funerals for regular soldiers killed in combat need to be more official than those for mercenaries, and are thus difficult to hide.

— ivan nechepurenko, neil macfarquhar and thomas gibbons-neff, New York Times, "Dozens of Russians Are Believed Killed in U.S.-Backed Syria Attack," 13 Feb. 2018
General manager Ron Hextall was playing the long game and didn’t give in to the organization’s history of gobbling a sugar rush of veteran mercenaries in place of intelligent, measured growth.

— bob ford, Philly.com, "Flyers picked bad year to stink in the playoffs | Bob Ford," 20 Apr. 2018
The second political consideration for oil and gas companies is even more mercenary.

— david roberts, Vox, "Big oil and Bush-era lobbyists are teaming up to support a carbon tax," 22 June 2018
And if that works somewhat fitfully, the sequel delivers consistently enough to keep this colorful mercenary laughing all the way to the bank.

— brian lowry, CNN, "'Deadpool 2' gleefully revels in R-rated mayhem," 14 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