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

The next day, that name emerged: California-based Taylor Farms, the third-largest producer of fresh produce in the U.S., specializing in packaged salad kits and fresh-cut vegetables.

From Slate ● Jul. 22, 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

A majority of products on the company’s recall list are items sold to restaurants and retailers including chopped lettuce, shredded lettuce, blends of iceberg and romaine lettuce, and salad mixes.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 20, 2026

Simply put, this is the time to indulge in a summer cobbler, slurp on a delicious cooked sesame noodle salad, or whip up an easy garden-fresh pasta.

From Salon ● Jul. 20, 2026

Grandma got pink lemonade tea for both of us, plus chicken salad sandwiches with salt-and-pepper chips.

From "From the Desk of Zoe Washington" by Janae Marks

Some Americans are skipping salads or no longer buying lettuce at the grocery store amid a lengthy investigation into the cyclospora outbreak.

From MarketWatch ● Jul. 20, 2026

The Taylor family is credited with helping to pioneer numerous innovations, from bagged salads to the U.S. industry’s first automated harvesters for romaine lettuce, cabbage and celery.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 18, 2026

“I was at a Ralphs yesterday and reaching for my usual prepackaged lettuce for my salads when I said, ‘Nah, let’s wait.’

From Slate ● Jul. 17, 2026

Crackers have spent enough time under cheese, beside soup, tucked politely next to salads and dips.

From Salon ● Jul. 14, 2026

I read in the business pages that these salads are a big hit, but even if they weren’t, they’d probably stay on the menu.

From "The Omnivore's Dilemma" by Michael Pollan

Related Words

• potato salad