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Peddlers (especially fish merchants) have been called mongers for more than 1000 years. The term traces to a Latin noun meaning "trader." Initially, it was an honorable term, but every profession has its bad apples, and the snake-oil salesmen of the bunch gave monger a bad reputation. By the middle of the 16th century, the term often implied that a merchant was dishonorable and contemptible. Nowadays, monger is typically appended to another word to identify a trader of a particular type. Some combinations (such as fishmonger) suggest respectable commerce, whereas others (such as rumormonger, scandalmonger, and hypemonger) imply that a person is trading or spreading information in a careless or deceptive manner.
Examples of monger in a Sentence
Aramide Tinubu, Variety, 15 Jan. 2026
But as president, Trump has become a globalist, an interventionist — some might say a war monger.
—Merrill Matthews, Washington Post, 7 Jan. 2026
Sydney Bucksbaum, Entertainment Weekly, 12 Dec. 2025
And few in the greater Oz area are better at stirring up the populace, stoking their fears and angers, mongering their hate on behalf of a tyrant, better than Morrible.
—David Fear, Rolling Stone, 18 Nov. 2025
See All Example Sentences for monger
Cite this Entry
“Monger.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/monger. Accessed 28 Jan. 2026.
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