salsa

[sahl-suh, sahl-sah]

noun

1. Mexican Cooking.,  a hot sauce of tomatoes and chile peppers with onion and garlic, and sometimes seasoned with cumin or fresh cilantro, often used as a condiment or served as a dip.

2. a lively, vigorous type of contemporary Latin American popular music, blending predominantly Cuban rhythms with elements of jazz, rock, and soul music.

3. a ballroom dance of Puerto Rican origin, performed to this music, similar to the mambo, but faster with the accent on the first beat instead of the second beat of each measure.

verb (used without object)

1. to dance the salsa.

salsa

/ ˈsælsə /

noun

1. a type of Latin American big-band dance music

2. a dance performed to this kind of music

3. Mexican cookery a spicy tomato-based sauce

Word History and Origins

Origin of salsa¹

First recorded in 1845–50, and in 1970–75 salsa for defs. 2, 3; from Latin American Spanish, Spanish: literally, “sauce”; the dance and music were probably so called originally because of the mixture of styles

Word History and Origins

Origin of salsa¹

C20: from Spanish: sauce

Example Sentences

In 2010, a Super Bowl in Miami — home of salsa and Afro-Cuban jazz — gave us the Who ... who are also from England.

From Los Angeles Times

When the group broke up around 1996, Armisen took on gigs as a background drummer for the Blue Man Group and even formed a salsa band.

From Los Angeles Times

My late grandmother, in particular, had a predictable, beloved spread: shrimp cocktail with horseradish-laced sauce; the supermarket veggie platter with ranch; crockpot meatballs simmered in barbecue sauce and grape jelly; salsa with Tostito’s scoops.

From Salon

The colorful space, dominated by a giant rooster mural and pulsing with salsa, draws inspiration from across Latin America and the Caribbean.

From Salon

It is no accident that the most nominated songs on “DTMF” nominated for awards are those with live instrumentation and more “traditional” sounds like salsa, while the reggaetón producers who helped create them are not.

From Los Angeles Times

Related Words

• dressing 
• gravy 
• horseradish 
• ketchup 
• mustard 
• pepper 
• relish 
• salt 
• sauce 
• seasoning 
• spice