Definitions
Motivated mainly by money or hired for payment.
Word origin
From Middle English mercenarye (“someone paid to work, hireling”), from Latin mercēnārius (“hired for money”), from mercēs (“reward, wages, price”).
Used in a sentence
“J. Argyrofylus, a mercenary Greek, who came to teach school in Italy, after the sacking of Constantinople by the Turks, used to maintain that Cicero understood neither Philosophy nor Greek”
“If a mercenary died, that was one fewer man to pay. Mercenaries were an efficient way to run a military campaign especially in view of the employer's ability to hire and fire when and if the situation demanded”
“Success is never so interesting as struggle—not even to the successful, not even to the most mercenary forms of ambition.”
Source: Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0
Used as a crossword answer1 curated clues
01“Hired soldier”9 letters
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