MERCENARY Synonyms: 67 Similar and Opposite Words

mercenary

adjective

as in greedy

having or marked by an eager and often selfish desire especially for material possessions they were a mercenary couple, who defined themselves not by what they were but by what they owned

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Recent Examples of mercenary Six British men were later convicted of national security and arson offenses; ringleader Dylan Earl, 21, had been recruited by the Russian mercenary outfit Wagner and was paid about $12,000 for the attack. —

The Week Us, TheWeek, 17 Feb. 2026 Alekseyev, 64, played a prominent role during the mutiny by mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin in the summer of 2023. —

Yuliya Talmazan, NBC news, 9 Feb. 2026 In 2023, Alekseyev was sent by the Russian military to negotiate with Yevgeny Prigozhin, founder of the Wagner private mercenary group, during the Wagner group’s mutiny. —

Cnn's Tim Lister, CNN Money, 8 Feb. 2026 At the time Alekseyev, was filmed sitting with Prigozhin in a Russian military compound taken over by Wagner, trying to persuade the mercenary chief to call off his troops. —

CBS News, 6 Feb. 2026 See All Example Sentences for mercenary

Recent Examples of Synonyms for mercenary

Adjective

Sir Ian McKellen stars as a retired pop art sensation who is now the target of a greedy inheritance plot to forge and complete his eight unfinished canvases.

— Randy Myers, Mercury News, 18 Mar. 2026
Until then, smuggling weed had been a grand adventure, an escape from a society that had just thrown Prager’s generation into a meat grinder in Vietnam, a repudiation of the crooked politicians and backward preachers and greedy capitalists who were running the world.

— Jack Crosbie, Rolling Stone, 17 Mar. 2026