mercenary
97
8.3
- noun
- /ˈmɜrsəˌnɛri/
:
mercenario
- But this isn't the first time a mercenary group has been under fire.
- a hired mercenary
- foreign mercenaries
- mercenary soldiers
And so a world awash in mercenaries is a world with more war.
- And so a world awash in mercenaries is a world with more war.
- Starts with, like him and his mercenaries trying to attack his brother.
- So, you know, if you look at the different, the different worlds, the Dorsai are the, the military world, they become the, the finest mercenaries.
- Next to them stood men from the foreign mercenaries Taro Scythians.
- He was a, he was ACIA mercenary, ACIA assassin.
- Despots, tyrants, mercenaries fight the denizens of hungry ghost worlds.
- That was the old South African PMC where it was really APMC mercenaries were that was like that.
- He's quite fond of using Black Cube, the retired Mossad mercenaries.
- It's a two mercenaries, a cop game that you go to Iraq to kill minorities.
Examples
-
"I would not miss this," the mercenary continued, thinking out loud.
Fiction book (1992) -
The general decided to hire a mercenary to boost his forces in the ongoing conflict.
-
-Yeah, I came back after a few years of mercenary work.
-
There were no kings with the wealth to hire mercenary soldiers.
-
This time the Foreign Legion mercenary is not fighting for money, nor for the French government alone.
-
With fifty drow soldiers around them, the mercenary was not too worried.
Fiction book (1992) -
The very band of mercenaries that took us in helped defeat our house.
Fiction book (1992) -
Celtic warriors were so valued in the ancient world that foreign kings often hired them as mercenary soldiers to serve in their armies.
-
Mercenary, bounty hunter, works for the highest bidder.
-
Before arriving at Calimport, they were mercenaries who had never lost a single man in their twelve years together.
Fiction book (1992)
Synonyms
6
9.8
A person hired to fight for money
3
7.9
A person who fights for money for other countries or groups
A person who works for whoever pays most and cares only about money
Antonyms
Compounds
How Opportunistic
Surface Forms
Morphology
mercenary = mercenary (opaque) = mercen + ary
The noun sense is historically connected to the adjective 'mercenary', but the stem 'mercen-' is not transparent to most learners and the military meaning is not predictable from the form.
Etymology
Mercenary comes from the Latin merces, meaning 'pay' or 'wages'. A mercenary was originally a soldier hired and paid to fight, which is why today it means someone who fights or works for money rather than for a cause.