# salt

Pronunciation: US say "SAWLT" /sɔlt/; UK say "SOLT" /sɒlt/

## Noun

1. A common substance consisting mainly of sodium chloride, used to season and preserve food.
   - Simple: A white substance you add to food to give it flavor and to keep it from going bad.
   - _The recipe calls for a pinch of salt and freshly ground pepper._
   - _Coastal towns once traded salt as a valuable commodity._
4. A compound formed when an acid reacts with a base, with a positive ion replacing a hydrogen of the acid.
   - Simple: A substance that forms when an acid reacts with a base.
   - _Each salt consists of a cation and an anion held together by ionic bonds._
   - _Neutralizing sulfuric acid with potassium hydroxide produces water and a salt called potassium sulfate._
7. Skepticism combined with common sense; a wary, doubting attitude toward claims.
   - Simple: A careful, doubting attitude that keeps you from believing things too easily.
   - _Seasoned reporters learn to read the glowing numbers in a company's press release with a grain of salt._
   - _After years of missed deadlines, the team takes every launch date the manager announces with a grain of salt._
8. A salt used as a medicine, usually in the plural, such as Epsom salts taken as a laxative.
   - Simple: A kind of salt used as a medicine, such as Epsom salts, taken to help empty the bowels.
9. Bitter, often petty resentment or indignation, especially shown online after a loss or slight. *(slang)*
   - Simple: Angry, bitter feelings that people show, especially online, when they lose or feel treated unfairly.
   - _The losing team's fans flooded the comments with salt after the final whistle._
   - _His post about losing the tournament was full of salt and sour grapes._
13. A sailor, especially an experienced one (often old salt). *(slang)*
   - Simple: A sailor, especially one who has spent many years at sea.
   - _A weathered old salt mended nets by the harbor wall._
   - _Grandpa, an old salt who spent forty years on fishing boats, could predict a squall just by smelling the wind._
17. A small dish or cellar for holding salt at the table.
   - Simple: A small dish or pot for holding salt on a dining table.

## Verb

2. To add salt to food or another substance.
   - Simple: To put salt on or in food or something else, for flavor or to keep it from spoiling.
   - _Always salt the meat about an hour before cooking it._
   - _She salted the broth until it finally tasted right._
12. To add small amounts or single examples of something throughout a larger whole, often to give it a particular quality.
   - Simple: To add small bits of something here and there all through something else.
   - _The director salts the film with subtle nods to earlier works._
   - _Writers often salt their dialogue with regional slang._
14. To scatter salt over conquered or destroyed land as a symbolic curse meant to keep it from being lived on again.
   - Simple: To scatter salt over land you have destroyed, as a curse so that no one will live there again.
   - _The victorious army salted the ground around the ruined city._
   - _Legend says conquerors would salt the earth so no one could resettle it._
15. To secretly put something into a place or collection, such as ore in a mine, fake finds at a dig, or decoy entries in a list, so it seems different than it is.
   - Simple: To secretly add things to a place or list, like fake gold in a mine, to fool people.
   - _Swindlers salt worthless claims to fool eager investors._
   - _He had salted the diggings with imported ore before the assayers arrived._
16. Of a saline solution, to leave behind deposits of salt as it dries.
   - Simple: To leave salt behind, the way very salty water does as it dries out.

## Adjective

3. Of water, containing dissolved salt; saline.
   - Simple: Containing salt, the way seawater and ocean spray do.
   - _They could not drink the salt water despite their thirst._
   - _Salt spray coated the windows of the seaside cottage._
5. Treated or cured with salt in order to preserve it.
   - Simple: Kept from spoiling by being rubbed with or soaked in salt.
   - _The pantry was stocked with salt beef for the months ahead._
   - _Sailors grew tired of eating salt fish every single day._
6. Having to do with salt deposits, mining, processing, or use.
   - Simple: Having to do with salt: where it is found, dug out of the ground, made, or used.
   - _Geologists mapped the region's salt formations in detail._
   - _The museum displays tools from the area's salt industry._
11. Of land or plants: flooded by the sea, or growing in the sea or on ground the sea floods.
   - Simple: Covered by sea water, or growing where the sea floods the land.
   - _At high tide the sea covers the salt marshes, and only plants that tolerate brine can grow there._
   - _Generations of farmers built dikes to turn the salt meadows along the coast into dry farmland._

## Noun

10. A coastal marsh flooded by saline water at the shore of the sea. *(rare)*
   - Simple: A wet, low stretch of ground near the sea where salty water floods in.
18. Flavor or taste; the seasoning quality that gives food its savor. *(obsolete)*
   - Simple: The flavor or taste that good seasoning gives to food.
19. Piquancy, wit, or keen sharpness of expression in speech or writing. *(obsolete)*
   - Simple: Sharp, clever wit in what someone says or writes.

## Adjective

20. Bitter, sharp, or pungent, whether in taste or in tone. *(obsolete)*
   - Simple: Bitter, sharp, or harsh in taste or in feeling.
21. Costly or expensive; charged at a steep price. *(archaic)*
   - Simple: Expensive and costing more than someone wants to pay.
22. Lustful, lecherous, or salacious; of animals, in heat. *(obsolete)*
   - Simple: Feeling strong sexual desire, or (of an animal) ready to mate.

## Other meanings

- (verb) To make a weapon, nuclear or conventional, emit more radiation by mixing in particular chemical elements.
- (noun) A random value combined with a password or other data before it is hashed, so identical passwords give different hashes and precomputed guesses fail.
- (verb) To add a random value to data such as a password before hashing it, so that identical inputs give different results.
- (verb) To lock a page title on a wiki so that the page cannot be created.
- (noun) A person who takes a job at a company specifically to help organize a union there once hired.
- (verb) To pack salt between the timbers and planks of a wooden ship to preserve the wood from decay.
- (noun) Money collected from passersby by Eton College boys during the montem, an old school procession.
- (noun) A jump, bound, or prancing movement.

## Origin

Proto-Indo-European "*séh₂ls" ("salt") is the ultimate source. It led to Proto-Germanic "*saltą" and Proto-West Germanic "*salt," then to Old English "sealt" and Middle English "salt." "Sal," from Latin "sāl" ("salt"), is a doublet.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/salt (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).