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• salt
  salt

  noun

  a crystalline compound, sodium chloride, NaCl, occurring as a mineral, a constituent of seawater, etc., and used for seasoning food, as a preservative, etc.
• SALT
  SALT

  noun

  Strategic Arms Limitation Talks.

salt

¹ American  

[sawlt] / sɔlt /

noun

• salts
  plural

1. a crystalline compound, sodium chloride, NaCl, occurring as a mineral, a constituent of seawater, etc., and used for seasoning food, as a preservative, etc.

2. table salt mixed with a particular herb or seasoning for which it is named.

   garlic salt;

   celery salt.

3. Chemistry. any of a class of compounds formed by the replacement of one or more hydrogen atoms of an acid with elements or groups, which are composed of anions and cations, and which usually ionize in solution; a product formed by the neutralization of an acid by a base.

4. salts, any of various salts used as purgatives, as Epsom salts.

5. an element that gives liveliness, piquancy, or pungency.

   Anecdotes are the salt of his narrative.

   Synonyms:

   zest, flavor

6. wit; pungency.

7. a small, usually open dish, as of silver or glass, used on the table for holding salt.

8. Informal. a sailor, especially an old or experienced one.

   He's an old salt who'll be happy to tell you about his years at sea.

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verb (used with object)

• salts,
  present (3rd person singular)
• salted,
  past participle,  past
• salting
  present participle

1. to season with salt.

2. to cure, preserve, or treat with salt.

3. to furnish with salt.

   to salt cattle.

4. to treat with common salt or with any chemical salt.

5. to spread salt, especially rock salt, on so as to melt snow or ice.

   The highway department salted the roads after the storm.

6. to introduce rich ore or other valuable matter fraudulently into (a mine, the ground, a mineral sample, etc.) to create a false impression of value.

7. to add interest or excitement to.

   a novel salted with witty dialogue.

adjective

1. containing salt; having the taste of salt.

   salt water.

2. cured or preserved with salt.

   salt cod.

3. inundated by or growing in salt water.

   salt marsh.

4. producing the one of the four basic taste sensations that is not sweet, sour, or bitter.

5. pungent or sharp.

   salt speech.

verb phrase

1. salt out to separate (a dissolved substance) from a solution by the addition of a salt, especially common salt.

2. salt away

   1. Also salt down to preserve by adding quantities of salt to, as meat.

   2. Informal. to keep in reserve; store away; save.

      to salt away most of one's earnings.

idioms

1. with a grain / pinch of salt, with reserve or allowance; with an attitude of skepticism.

   Diplomats took the reports of an impending crisis with a grain of salt.

2. worth one's salt, deserving of one's wages or salary.

   We couldn't find an assistant worth her salt.

3. rub salt in / into someone's wounds, to make someone's bad situation even worse.

salt ² American  

[sawlt] / sɔlt /

adjective

Obsolete.

1. lustful; lecherous.

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SALT ³ American  

[sawlt] / sɔlt /

noun

1. Strategic Arms Limitation Talks.

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salt ¹ British  

/ sɔːlt /

noun

1. a white powder or colourless crystalline solid, consisting mainly of sodium chloride and used for seasoning and preserving food

2. (modifier) preserved in, flooded with, containing, or growing in salt or salty water

   salt pork

   salt marshes

3. chem any of a class of usually crystalline solid compounds that are formed from, or can be regarded as formed from, an acid and a base by replacement of one or more hydrogen atoms in the acid molecules by positive ions from the base

4. liveliness or pungency

   his wit added salt to the discussion

5. dry or laconic wit

6. a sailor, esp one who is old and experienced

7. short for saltcellar

8. to make someone's pain, shame, etc, even worse

9. a person or group of people regarded as the finest of their kind

10. with reservations; sceptically

11. efficient; worthy of one's pay

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verb

1. to season or preserve with salt

2. to scatter salt over (an icy road, path, etc) to melt the ice

3. to add zest to

4. to preserve or cure with salt or saline solution

5. chem to treat with common salt or other chemical salt

6. to provide (cattle, etc) with salt

7. to give a false appearance of value to, esp to introduce valuable ore fraudulently into (a mine, sample, etc)

adjective

1. not sour, sweet, or bitter; salty

2. obsolete rank or lascivious (esp in the phrase a salt wit )

SALT ² British  

/ sɔːlt /

acronym

1. Strategic Arms Limitation Talks or Treaty

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salt Scientific  

/ sôlt /

1. Any of a large class of chemical compounds formed when a positively charged ion (a cation) bonds with a negatively charged ion (an anion), as when a halogen bonds with a metal. Salts are water soluble; when dissolved, the ions are freed from each other, and the electrical conductivity of the water is increased.

2. See more at complex salt double salt simple salt

3. A colorless or white crystalline salt in which a sodium atom (the cation) is bonded to a chlorine atom (the anion). This salt is found naturally in all animal fluids, in seawater, and in underground deposits (when it is often called halite). It is used widely as a food seasoning and preservative. Also called common salt, sodium chloride, table salt. Chemical formula: NaCl.

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salt Cultural  

1. In chemistry, a compound resulting from the combination of an acid and a base, which neutralize each other.

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salt More Idioms  

More idioms and phrases containing salt

• back to the salt mines
• with a grain of salt

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Synonym Usage

See sailor.

Discover More

Common table salt is sodium chloride.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• saltness
  noun
• saltish
  adjective
• saltless
  adjective
• saltlike
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• salts
  plural

Participles

• salting
  present
• salted
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• salt
  simple
• salts
  simple
• have salted
  perfect
• has salted
  perfect
• am salting
  progressive
• are salting
  progressive
• is salting
  progressive
• have been salting
  perfect progressive
• has been salting
  perfect progressive

Past

• salted
  simple
• had salted
  perfect
• was salting
  progressive
• were salting
  progressive
• had been salting
  perfect progressive

Future

• will salt
  simple
• will have salted
  perfect
• will be salting
  progressive
• will have been salting
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of salt¹

First recorded before 900; Middle English; noun and adjective salt, salte, zalt, Old English sealt; cognate with German Salz, Old Norse, Gothic salt, all from Germanic saltam; akin to Latin sal, Greek háls, Slavic ( Polish ) sol-, Celtic ( Irish ) salann ; Middle English verb salten, Old English saltan, sealtan; compare Old High German salzan, Old Norse salta, Dutch zouten; akin to Latin sallere “to sprinkle with salt”; see also halo- ( def. ), salary, sauce

Origin of salt²

First recorded in 1515–25; by shortening and alteration of assaut, Middle English a sawt, from Middle French a saut “on the jump,” from a- a- ⁵ ( def. ) + saut “a jump,” from Latin saltus, equivalent to sal(īre) “to jump” + -tus suffix of verbal action; see also halter ² ( def. ), salacious

Explanation

The white, grainy stuff that makes food taste more flavorful is salt. You might sprinkle salt on your hot buttered popcorn to make it even more delicious. Although many people eat too much salt, it's actually necessary for life, in both plants and animals. The scientific name for salt is sodium chloride, and it's been harvested from seawater and salt mines for most of human history. When you use salt as a verb, it means "shake salt onto." If someone's known as an old salt, it means they're an experienced sailor — and if they're the salt of the earth, they're honest and reliable.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

salt SALT salts salted salting

StormWall, which involves school-bus-size satellites and a whole lot of salt, could provide an ionic “air bag” for the Earth.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 21, 2026

For as long as people have traveled by sea, ships have needed protection from water, salt, microorganisms, and marine animals such as worms.

From Science Daily ● Aug. 21, 2026

Taste and adjust the salt, black pepper and red-pepper flakes as needed.

From Salon ● Aug. 16, 2026

The agency has imposed restrictions on irrigation, while limiting how much certain locks can open to reduce the loss of fresh water and to prevent too much salt water from entering the network.

From Barron's ● Aug. 15, 2026

It was loaded with a big bag of flour, a huge silver mixing bowl, salt, buttermilk, and baking powder.

From "Legendary Frybread Drive-In" by Cynthia Leitich Smith

For example, the state and local tax, or SALT, deduction grew to a maximum of $40,000, four times its previous size, under the new law.

From MarketWatch ● Apr. 14, 2026

The cap on the state and local tax deduction, or SALT, increased from $10,000 to $40,000.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 25, 2026

Altfest has been paying close attention to changes in the state and local tax, or SALT, deduction this year in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.

From Barron's ● Nov. 25, 2025

And while he did contemplate signing up for another lease for SALT, he said he had decided it was time to move into food media.

From BBC ● Oct. 21, 2025

Ten years ago, the United States and the Soviet Union made the historic decision to open the strategic arms limitations talks, or SALT.

From State of the Union Address by Jimmy Carter

They said these often contained heavy metal salts or nitrosamines that can leach into the environment once the balloon degrades.

From BBC ● Aug. 13, 2026

Food manufacturers can also replace some sodium with potassium salts, but there are practical limits.

From Science Daily ● Jul. 31, 2026

Kyle Shanahan must believe the olfactory exhilaration of smelling salts enhances his coaching ability.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 28, 2026

Then I’ll drink a whole liter of water if I need to replenish my body with some electrolytes and some mineral salts.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 11, 2026

The Attendant’s charge has passed out, and the woman’s serving girl is trying to alternately drag her or revive her with smelling salts while the Attendant provides a distraction.

From "Dread Nation" by Justina Ireland

Zucchini could be grated and cooked down until jammy, then loosened with pasta water; tomatoes could be sliced, salted and left to steep in olive oil.

From Salon ● Aug. 4, 2026

The strips were then blanched, salted, and fried in soybean oil that had been heated to 180 degrees Celsius.

From Science Daily ● Jul. 29, 2026

When dried and salted, guitarfish is used in soups and stews across Ghana.

From Barron's ● Jul. 23, 2026

You can very easily make salted corn chips at home with some corn flour, oil, and salt.

From Slate ● Jul. 12, 2026

The barrels of salted fish were in the pantry, and yellow cheeses were stacked on the pantry shelves.

From "Little House in the Big Woods" by Laura Ingalls Wilder

First, the bad news: “Snowcrete” is the treacherous ice that results when rain, imprecise or nonexistent plowing and insufficient salting turn what was once fluffy white snow into a dense and dirty scourge.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 2, 2026

Rock samples dating from 1995 to 1997 were analysed and found to have been tampered with through a process called salting.

From BBC ● May 18, 2024

They could get a job now and start salting away that cash and get some great life lessons along the way.

From Slate ● Apr. 29, 2024

The Drexel team has been developing its cold-weather-resilient concrete mix over the last five years with the goal of reducing the freezing, thawing and salting that eats away at roads and other concrete surfaces.

From Science Daily ● Mar. 18, 2024

As if the expense and trouble were not irksome enough, all and sundry insisted on salting Ned's wound by calling it "the Hand's tourney," as if he were the cause of it.

From "A Game of Thrones" by George R.R. Martin

Related Words

• flavoring
• spice