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

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

Smoked provolone pizza was delivered halfway through the flight followed by a sandwich or salad and tiramisu 90 minutes before landing.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 19, 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

Officials in Michigan, one state with a disproportionately large number of illnesses, said earlier this month that it had become safer to eat lettuce and salad greens as case counts started to fall.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 18, 2026

Mom joins us for dinner with a salad of her own.

From "Finding Junie Kim" by Ellen Oh

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

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

From BBC ● Jul. 30, 2026

Now may not be the time to whip up your favorite cold salads or overload on the “L” in your BLTs.

From Salon ● Jul. 25, 2026

Some smaller restaurants last week threw out lettuce, greens and bagged salad mixes; pulled salads and raw vegetables from menus; or only served greens like spinach that had been cooked.

From MarketWatch ● Jul. 20, 2026

One of Leila’s pleasures was cooking, lots of hearty soups in the winter, and salads as things got warmer.

From "A Deadly Wandering: A Mystery, a Landmark Investigation, and the Astonishing Science of Attention in the Digital Age" by Matt Richtel

Related Words

• potato salad