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salmon

[sam-uh n]
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noun, plural salm·ons, (especially collectively) salm·on for 1–3.

a marine and freshwater food fish, Salmo salar, of the family Salmonidae, having pink flesh, inhabiting waters off the North Atlantic coasts of Europe and North America near the mouths of large rivers, which it enters to spawn.
landlocked salmon.
any of several salmonoid food fishes of the genus Oncorhynchus, inhabiting the North Pacific.
a light yellowish-pink.

adjective

of the color salmon.

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RELATED WORDS

rose, flaming, maroon, glowing, cardinal, crimson, coral, wine, cantaloupe, bittersweet, titian, peach, apricot, carrot, tangerine, flush, blush, fuchsia, pink, cherry

Nearby words

  1. salmagundi,
  2. salmanazar,
  3. salmeterol xinafoate,
  4. salmi,
  5. salmis,
  6. salmon brick,
  7. salmon ladder,
  8. salmon pink,
  9. salmon river mountains,
  10. salmon trout

Origin of salmon

1200–50; Middle English salmoun, samoun < Anglo-French (Old French saumon) < Latin salmōn-, stem of salmō
Related formssalm·on·like, adjective
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for salmon

British Dictionary definitions for salmon

salmon

noun plural -ons or -on

any soft-finned fish of the family Salmonidae, esp Salmo salar of the Atlantic and Oncorhynchus species (sockeye, Chinook, etc) of the Pacific, which are important food fishes. They occur in cold and temperate waters and many species migrate to fresh water to spawn
Australian any of several unrelated fish, esp the Australian salmon
short for salmon pink

Word Origin for salmon

C13: from Old French saumon, from Latin salmō; related to Late Latin salar trout
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for salmon

salmon

n.

early 13c., from Anglo-French samoun, Old French salmun (Modern French saumon), from Latin salmonem (nominative salmo) "a salmon," probably originally "leaper," from salire "to leap" (see salient (adj.)), though some dismiss this as folk etymology. Another theory traces it to Celtic. Replaced Old English læx, from PIE *lax, the more usual word for the fish (see lox). In reference to a color, from 1786.

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper