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.

---

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

---

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

They grow salad onions, broccoli and other vegetables on fields nearby, all irrigated by the lake water.

From BBC ● Oct. 7, 2026

Consider this salad a way to cling the season a little longer.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 29, 2026

And I’ll have a light dinner: chips and guacamole, tacos, salad.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 18, 2026

Soybean oil appears in salad dressings, mayonnaise, baked goods, infant formula, snacks and fried foods; soy lecithin emulsifies chocolate and bread; and soy protein fortifies energy bars, breakfast cereals and canned soup.

From Salon ● Sep. 13, 2026

Mustafa picks out a few cucumbers and then hands me the salad.

From "Amina's Song" by Hena Khan

White button mushrooms are a valuable specialty crop and a familiar ingredient in everything from salads and appetizers to everyday meals.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 11, 2026

Over the summer, the restaurant industry also contended with a cyclospora outbreak that made more consumers squeamish about ordering things like salads.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 23, 2026

He said people have been eating salads from UK products "all summer" but added: "The issue though is serious, the aphids bloom in June and again in August/September."

From BBC ● Sep. 23, 2026

They laid a buffet with French wine and cheeses, roast chicken, and Aggrey’s salads, one with watermelon, one with peach.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 17, 2026

The courses appear in rapid succession—savory rabbit and roasted duck and fish, platters of vegetables and salads.

From "The Belles" by Dhonielle Clayton

Random Word

Spin the wheel and learn a new word!

---

Related Words

• potato salad

---