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

Even Tom Bergeron was there as a guest judge, literally jumping up and down on stage after pal Elaine Hendrix’s salsa and telling her, “That was really good!”

Read more on Los Angeles Times

López Mari shot the dance class portion at the Arthur Murray Dance Studios, a famous school for classic salsa in San Juan.

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“It makes me really happy to see a younger generation take on salsa. Because I was worried for a bit. I didn’t know how salsa is going to continue.”

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It’s peak people watching and there happens to also be mozzarella sticks, lava cake, margaritas and the salsa trio with chips.

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In the course of the 20th century, tomatoes became ubiquitous enough in Egyptian cuisine to make “salsa” a usual word for sauce and, more specifically, tomato puree.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

Related Words

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