salmon
Americannoun
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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.
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any of several salmonoid food fishes of the genus Oncorhynchus, inhabiting the North Pacific Ocean.
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a light yellowish-pink.
adjective
noun
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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
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any of several unrelated fish, esp the Australian salmon
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short for salmon pink
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of salmon
First recorded in 1200–50; Middle English salmoun, samoun, from Anglo-French from Old French saumon, or directly from Latin salmōn-, stem of salmō
Explanation
A salmon is a big, silver-skinned fish that lives in both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Many commercial fishermen catch salmon. Salmon are born in fresh water, migrate to the ocean, and then return to the place they were born to spawn, or reproduce. Because they move from one place to another, salmon are famous for leaping over dams and against river tides — in fact, one theory about the word salmon says its Latin root is salire, or "to leap." There is also a color known as salmon, the pink-orange hue of a salmon's flesh.
Vocabulary lists containing salmon
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Amazing Animals, List 1
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Pink
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
They found a guy who did an ad against some Norwegian salmon commercial fisheries, realized he was cut straight from central casting, and that’s how we got Graham Platner.
From Salon • Jul. 10, 2026
In the summer, the area is thronged by fishermen drawn to Bristol Bay for the world’s largest sockeye salmon run.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jul. 7, 2026
"Many people hold onto the American dream, but given how tough things are getting, you can't be the salmon swimming against the current -- because you get tired, you burn out, it destroys you."
From Barron's • Jul. 1, 2026
The final section of amphibians, insects and fish, has: the Atlantic salmon, the basking shark, the buff-tailed bumblebee, the common frog, the Emperor dragonfly, and the marsh fritillary butterfly.
From BBC • Jun. 2, 2026
I know where trout are rising, and where the salmon leap.
From "Rebecca" by Daphne du Maurier
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
