salad

American  

[sal-uhd] / ˈsæl əd /

noun

• salads
  plural

1. a usually cold dish consisting of vegetables, as lettuce, tomatoes, and cucumbers, covered with a dressing and sometimes containing seafood, meat, or eggs.

2. any of various dishes consisting of foods, as meat, seafood, eggs, pasta, or fruit, prepared singly or combined, usually cut up, mixed with a dressing, and served cold.

   chicken salad; potato salad.

3. any herb or green vegetable, as lettuce, used for salads or eaten raw.

4. South Midland and Southern U.S. greens.

5. any mixture or assortment.

   The usual salad of writers, artists, and musicians attended the party.

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salad British  

/ ˈsæləd /

noun

1. a dish of raw vegetables, such as lettuce, tomatoes, etc, served as a separate course with cold meat, eggs, etc, or as part of a main course

2. any dish of cold vegetables or fruit

   potato salad

   fruit salad

3. any green vegetable used in such a dish, esp lettuce

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• salads
  plural

Etymology

Origin of salad

1350–1400; Middle English salad ( e ) < Middle French salade < Old Provençal salada < Vulgar Latin *salāta, feminine past participle of *salāre to salt, equivalent to sal-, stem of sāl salt ¹ + -āta -ate ¹

Explanation

A salad is a dish that's usually cold and often includes lettuce or other greens. However, some salads don't have any greens but instead have lots of mayo — like tuna salad or chicken salad. While your idea of a salad might be iceberg lettuce, tomatoes, carrots, croutons, and a creamy dressing, salads come in many different forms. You can make a pasta salad or a tuna salad or an egg salad. Other salads are based on big pieces of bread, or meat, or cheese — and still others are dessert salads made with gelatin or whipped cream and fruit. Salad comes from the Latin phrase herba salata, or "salted vegetables."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

salad salads

A delicious word salad: How many words can you create with the letters Y, B, O, F, U, and N?

From Slate ● Aug. 18, 2026

Gen knows the exact measurements of her salad order and is strictly forbidden from eating any bread.

From Salon ● Aug. 18, 2026

Then, during lunch indoors, one made a beeline for her salad.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 18, 2026

Fast-casual salad chain Sweetgreen last week said it recalled some jalapenos as a precautionary measure and called out “reduced consumer demand for fresh prepared foods.”

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 11, 2026

Its breath reeked of rancid salad, smelling worse than the middle school cafeteria that time all the refrigerators stopped working on Taco Tuesday.

From "Mr. Lemoncello's Library Olympics" by Chris Grabenstein

There will also be house-made pastas and seasonal salads.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 11, 2026

The illness is caused by a parasite, cyclospora, that can contaminate food like salads, herbs and soft fruits.

From BBC ● Jul. 30, 2026

Chipotle said it was difficult to predict the duration of the outbreak, which has prompted restaurants to pull salads and other greens from menus.

From MarketWatch ● Jul. 29, 2026

Now may not be the time to whip up your favorite cold salads or overload on the “L” in your BLTs.

From Salon ● Jul. 25, 2026

It is our job as servers to assemble the salads and desserts, pour the dressings, and squirt the whipped cream.

From "Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America" by Barbara Ehrenreich

Related Words

• potato salad