What does "salt" mean?
A common substance, chemically consisting mainly of sodium chloride (NaCl), used extensively as a food ingredient, seasoning, condiment, and preservative.
Salt
/sɔlt/ adj, name, noun, verb, slang
adj, name, noun, verb, slang ·Very common ·Middle school level
Meaning at a glance
- Primary sense: A common substance, chemically consisting mainly of sodium chloride (NaCl), used extensively as a food ingredient, seasoning, condiment, and preservative.
- Grammar: salt is listed as adj, name, noun, verb, slang.
- Nearest alternatives: common salt, table salt, ab, able seaman.
- Useful contrasts: danish sukker, some sugar, dissipate.
- Usage evidence: "Pass me the salt, please." "Here you are."
How to use "salt"
- Start with the primary definition, then check the part of speech before placing the word in a sentence.
- Compare nearby synonyms to make sure "salt" carries the exact meaning, tone, and strength you need.
- Use the example sentence as a context check. If your sentence uses the word differently, confirm that the grammar still fits.
Meaning check
- Does the word fit the sentence's grammar?
- Does it match the intended tone rather than only the dictionary definition?
- Would a simpler synonym be clearer for the reader?
- Is there enough surrounding context to prevent ambiguity?
Source and review context
This entry combines structured lexical data with WordToolSet review checks. Definitions, examples, synonyms, and usage notes may come from different source tables, so the page is designed to show evidence from more than one angle before you rely on "salt" in a final draft.
If a word has several senses, prefer the sense that matches your sentence's grammar and surrounding context. A correct definition can still be the wrong choice when the sentence needs a different register, emphasis, or level of specificity.
Before you rely on this definition
Read the first definition as a starting point, then check the example, synonyms, and part of speech before treating "salt" as the right word for your sentence.
If your draft is formal, technical, persuasive, or sensitive, compare "salt" with a nearby alternative so the final choice matches both meaning and reader expectation.
Compare nearby meanings
- Use synonyms when you need a softer, stronger, simpler, or more specific word.
- Use antonyms to check the boundary of the meaning and avoid accidental contrast.
- Use the example sentence to confirm the word behaves naturally in context.
- Keep the original wording when a replacement adds complexity without improving precision.
Definition decision workflow
1. Identify the role
Check whether "salt" is acting as adj, name, noun, verb, slang in your sentence. A definition is only useful when the grammar matches the way the word is being used.
2. Test the nearest option
Compare it with "common salt" and other nearby choices to see whether the sentence needs a softer, stronger, or more familiar word.
3. Confirm with context
Use the example sentence below as an evidence check, then read your own sentence out loud to catch tone or rhythm problems.
Review note: Definition pages are checked for source coverage, sentence evidence, synonym support, and editorial insight before they are treated as approval-ready pages. If the evidence is too thin, the page remains available to users but is kept out of the approval-facing indexed inventory.
Final meaning check
Before publishing a sentence with "salt", ask whether the word helps the reader understand the idea faster. A precise word should reduce confusion, not simply make the sentence look more polished.
When the definition, synonym evidence, and example context point in the same direction, the word is usually a safer choice. When they conflict, revise the sentence or choose a clearer alternative.
Definitions
Noun
- 1 A common substance, chemically consisting mainly of sodium chloride (NaCl), used extensively as a food ingredient, seasoning, condiment, and preservative. countable, uncountable
"Near-synonyms: table salt, rock salt, road salt"
- 2 A bounding; a leaping; a prance. obsolete
"[…] he hath the skill to draw Their nectar forth, with kissing; and could make More wanton salts from this brave promontory, Down to this valley, than the nimble roe;"
- 3 Acronym of state and local tax(es) [deduction], a tax deduction whereby some portion of the money paid as taxes to state and local governments is not taxed at the federal level; the tax-deductible portion is nominally capped, but the cap is circumventable via special-interest loopholes. US, abbreviation, acronym, alt-of, attributive, usually
"Both the SALT limitations and the doubled standard deduction expire after 2025, putting SALT on the 2025 menu for lawmakers."
- 4 the taste experience when common salt is taken into the mouth wordnet
- 5 One of the compounds formed from the reaction of an acid with a base, where a positive ion replaces a hydrogen of the acid. countable, uncountable
Show 15 more definitions
- 6 Acronym of speech and language therapist. UK, abbreviation, acronym, alt-of
- 7 white crystalline form of especially sodium chloride used to season and preserve food wordnet
- 8 A salt marsh, a saline marsh at the shore of a sea. countable, uncommon
- 9 Acronym of speech and language therapy. UK, abbreviation, acronym, alt-of
- 10 a compound formed by replacing hydrogen in an acid by a metal (or a radical that acts like a metal) wordnet
- 11 A sailor (also old salt). countable, slang
"Around the door are generally to be seen, laughing and gossiping, clusters of old salts."
- 12 A sequence of random data added to plain text data (such as passwords or messages) prior to encryption or hashing, in order to make brute force decryption more difficult. countable, uncountable
- 13 A person who seeks employment at a company in order to (once employed by it) help unionize it. countable, uncountable
- 14 Flavour; taste; seasoning. obsolete, uncountable
"Though we are justices and doctors and churchmen […] we have some salt of our youth in us."
- 15 Piquancy; wit; sense. obsolete, uncountable
"Attic salt"
- 16 A dish for salt at table; a salt cellar. countable, obsolete
"I out and bought some things; among others, a dozen of silver salts."
- 17 Epsom salts or other salt used as a medicine. countable, historical, in-plural, uncountable
- 18 Skepticism and common sense. figuratively, uncountable
"Any politician's statements must be taken with a grain of salt, but his need to be taken with a whole shaker of salt."
- 19 Tears; indignation; outrage; arguing. Internet, uncountable
"There was so much salt in that thread about the poor casting decision."
- 20 The money demanded by Eton schoolboys during the montem. UK, historical, uncountable
Verb
- 1 To add salt to. transitive
"to salt fish, beef, or pork; to salt the city streets in the winter"
- 2 preserve with salt wordnet
- 3 To deposit salt as a saline solution. intransitive
"The brine begins to salt."
- 4 add zest or liveliness to wordnet
- 5 To fill with salt between the timbers and planks for the preservation of the timber.
Show 9 more definitions
- 6 sprinkle as if with salt wordnet
- 7 To insert or inject something into an object to give it properties it would not naturally have.; To blast metal into (as a portion of a mine) in order to cause to appear to be a productive seam.
- 8 add salt to wordnet
- 9 To insert or inject something into an object to give it properties it would not naturally have.; To add bogus evidence to an archaeological site.
- 10 To insert or inject something into an object to give it properties it would not naturally have.; To add certain chemical elements to (a nuclear or conventional weapon) so that it generates more radiation. transitive
"The composition of the fallout can also be changed by "salting" the weapon to be detonated. This consists in the inclusion of significant quantities of certain elements, possibly enriched in specific isotopes, for the purpose of producing induced radioactivity. There are several reasons why a weapon might be salted."
- 11 To sprinkle throughout. transitive
"They salted the document with arcane language."
- 12 To add filler bytes before encrypting, in order to make brute-force decryption more resource-intensive.
- 13 To render a thing useless.; To sow with salt (of land), symbolizing a curse on its re-inhabitation. transitive
"In this place were put to the ground and salted the houses of José Mascarenhas."
- 14 To render a thing useless.; To lock a page title so it cannot be created.
Adjective
- 1 Of water: containing salt, saline.
"Why the Sea is Salt"
- 2 Treated with salt as a preservative; cured with salt, salted.
"salt beef"
- 3 Of land, fields etc.: flooded by the sea.
"a salt marsh"
- 4 Of plants: growing in the sea or on land flooded by the sea.
"salt grass"
- 5 Related to salt deposits, excavation, processing or use.
"a salt mine"
Show 3 more definitions
- 6 Bitter; sharp; pungent. figuratively, obsolete
"I have a salt and sorry rheum offends me […]."
- 7 Salacious; lecherous; lustful; (of animals) in heat. figuratively, obsolete
"It is impossible you should see this, / Were they as prime as goats, as hot as monkeys, / As salt as wolves in pride, and fools as gross / As ignorance made drunk."
- 8 Costly; expensive. archaic, colloquial
Adjective
- 1 (of speech) painful or bitter wordnet
Proper Noun
- 1 Acronym of Strategic Arms Limitation Talks. abbreviation, acronym, alt-of
- 2 A village in Salt and Enson parish, Stafford borough, Staffordshire, England (OS grid ref SJ9527). countable, uncountable
- 3 A surname. countable, uncountable
Synonyms
All synonymsExample
""Pass me the salt, please." "Here you are.""
Common questions
What is a synonym for "salt"?
Common synonyms include: common salt, table salt, ab, able seaman, able-bodied seaman, accumulate.
How do you use "salt" in a sentence?
"Pass me the salt, please." "Here you are."
How do you pronounce "salt"?
Pronounced /sɔlt/.
Etymology
Etymology 1
PIE word *séh₂ls From Middle English salt, from Old English sealt, from Proto-West Germanic *salt, from Proto-Germanic *saltą, from Proto-Indo-European *séh₂ls (“salt”). Doublet of sal, salary, and salsa, all ultimately from Latin sāl (“salt”), which it superseded as the general term for "salt".
Etymology 2
Borrowed from Latin saltus.
Etymology 3
From Middle English [Term?], from Old English Selte. Compare Salter. The Staffordshire village was recorded as Selte in 1086 (DB), for a salt pit or saltworks.