mercenary
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
A 26-year-old basketball mercenary at his fifth school, Baker-Mazara is the average age of an NBA player.
From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 7, 2026
Last November, the South African government said it had received distress calls from the group of men who had joined mercenary forces in the conflict.
From BBC • Feb. 24, 2026
Those glimpses of humanity had a way of rendering the mercenary atmosphere in the tent city incredibly disorienting—almost unreal.
From Slate • Feb. 23, 2026
At the time Alekseyev was filmed sitting with Prigozhin in a Russian military compound taken over by Wagner, trying to convince the mercenary chief to call off his troops.
From Barron's • Feb. 6, 2026
He was writing about Commando Special Forces, how popular and revered they were by civilians, but his dislike of their commander, a German mercenary, made his words stiff.
From "Half of a Yellow Sun" by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
![]()
From Roget's 21st Century Thesaurus, Third Edition Copyright © 2013 by the Philip Lief Group.