salad

American  

[sal-uhd] / ˈsæl əd /

noun

• salads
  plural

1. a usually cold dish consisting of vegetables, as lettuce, tomatoes, and cucumbers, covered with a dressing and sometimes containing seafood, meat, or eggs.

2. any of various dishes consisting of foods, as meat, seafood, eggs, pasta, or fruit, prepared singly or combined, usually cut up, mixed with a dressing, and served cold.

   chicken salad; potato salad.

3. any herb or green vegetable, as lettuce, used for salads or eaten raw.

4. South Midland and Southern U.S. greens.

5. any mixture or assortment.

   The usual salad of writers, artists, and musicians attended the party.

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salad British  

/ ˈsæləd /

noun

1. a dish of raw vegetables, such as lettuce, tomatoes, etc, served as a separate course with cold meat, eggs, etc, or as part of a main course

2. any dish of cold vegetables or fruit

   potato salad

   fruit salad

3. any green vegetable used in such a dish, esp lettuce

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• salads
  plural

Etymology

Origin of salad

1350–1400; Middle English salad ( e ) < Middle French salade < Old Provençal salada < Vulgar Latin *salāta, feminine past participle of *salāre to salt, equivalent to sal-, stem of sāl salt ¹ + -āta -ate ¹

Explanation

A salad is a dish that's usually cold and often includes lettuce or other greens. However, some salads don't have any greens but instead have lots of mayo — like tuna salad or chicken salad. While your idea of a salad might be iceberg lettuce, tomatoes, carrots, croutons, and a creamy dressing, salads come in many different forms. You can make a pasta salad or a tuna salad or an egg salad. Other salads are based on big pieces of bread, or meat, or cheese — and still others are dessert salads made with gelatin or whipped cream and fruit. Salad comes from the Latin phrase herba salata, or "salted vegetables."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

salad salads

Her first post, about an underwhelming offering from a salad joint in Quebec, was mostly seen by friends and family.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 31, 2026

Only by asking what the restaurant actually had were the Americans able to get their dinner, which turned out to be fish salad and chicken Kyiv.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 25, 2026

Thursday and put down the winning bid, then took the pig to the sanctuary, where he was fed a salad and put in a 24-foot-by-24-foot enclosure next to another pig the sanctuary adopted named “Wiener.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 21, 2026

A delicious word salad: How many words can you create with the letters Y, B, O, F, U, and N?

From Slate ● Aug. 18, 2026

After a quick pass of the lunch counter to grab a second salad, I made my way across the atrium to where Regan sat, her forehead scrunched in concentration as she read chapter two.

From "Glitch" by Laura Martin

Here’s how one of L.A.’s freshest new restaurants makes grains, greens and veggies sing — and how home cooks can replicate its grain bowls and salads.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 22, 2026

Last year, Wonder bought a robot technology from Sweetgreen that specializes in making bowl-based meals like salads and grain bowls.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 7, 2026

However, health authorities in the state on Thursday said residents could “resume routine guidance” for eating salads, as reports of new cyclosporiasis cases start to fall.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 6, 2026

The illness is caused by a parasite, cyclospora, that can contaminate food like salads, herbs and soft fruits.

From BBC ● Jul. 30, 2026

The table was set with cold meats and salads so no one would have to fetch and carry food from the kitchen.

From "The Book of Dust: La Belle Sauvage" by Philip Pullman

Related Words

• potato salad