salt

noun
sŏlt

A common substance, chemically consisting mainly of sodium chloride (NaCl), used extensively as a food ingredient, seasoning, condiment, and preservative.

Other meanings

One of the compounds formed from the reaction of an acid with a base, where a positive ion replaces a hydrogen of the acid.
A sequence of random data added to plain text data (such as passwords or messages) prior to encryption or hashing, in order to make brute force decryption more difficult.

A kind of

compound

Kinds of salt

acetate
citrate
arsenate
chlorate
hypochlorite
perchlorate
alkali
ammonium chloride

Example sentences

“No salt is better than too much.”
Tatoeba · shekitten · CC0
“How much salt do babies and children need?”
Tatoeba · Igider · CC0
“Could you please pass the salt?”
Tatoeba · Miktsoanit · CC0

Word history

From Old English "sealt".

Where this comes from

This definition is adapted from “salt” on Wiktionary, by its contributors; example sentences are from Tatoeba, credited to their authors above; related-word lists use Open English WordNet (CC BY 4.0, based on Princeton WordNet), published under CC BY-SA 4.0. This page is published under the same licence.