salt

/sɔ:lt/

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Word: Salt

Part of Speech: Noun, Verb, Adjective

Basic Definition:

• Noun: Salt is a white, crystalline substance that people use to add flavor to food. It is also used to preserve food. The chemical name for common table salt is sodium chloride (NaCl).
• Verb: To salt means to add salt to food. It can also mean to preserve food with salt.
• Adjective: In a more advanced usage, "salt" can describe speech that is sharp, painful, or bitter, such as a sarcastic comment.

Usage Instructions:

1. As a Noun: Use "salt" when talking about cooking or flavoring food.

   • Example: "I added salt to the soup to make it taste better."

2. As a Verb: Use "salt" when you are talking about the action of adding salt to something.

   • Example: "Please salt the steak before grilling it."

3. As an Adjective: Use "salt" to describe a comment that is critical or harsh.

   • Example: "His salt remarks about the presentation made everyone uncomfortable."

Advanced Usage:

• Culinary: Salt is essential in cooking, not just for flavor but also for preserving food, especially in historical contexts.
• Scientific: In chemistry, salt refers to a broader category of compounds formed when an acid reacts with a base.

Word Variants:

• Salty (Adjective): This word can describe food that has a lot of salt or a person’s mood when they are annoyed.
  • Example: "The chips are quite salty."
• Saltiness (Noun): The quality of being salty.
  • Example: "The saltiness of the ocean water is noticeable."

Different Meanings:

1. Taste: The flavor experience when you eat something salty.
2. Preservation: The process of using salt to keep food from spoiling.
3. Emotion: A "salt" comment can mean a criticism that is harsh or hurtful.

Synonyms:

• For the noun: Sodium chloride, seasoning, preservative.
• For the verb: Season, flavor, enhance.
• For the adjective: Sharp, bitter, sarcastic.

Idioms:

• "Salt of the earth": This phrase describes someone who is very good, honest, or humble.
  • Example: "He’s the salt of the earth, always helping others."

Phrasal Verbs:

• "Salt away": To save or store something, typically money or resources.
  • Example: "She salted away some money for her vacation."

Summary:

"Salt" is a versatile word in English that can refer to a common seasoning, a method of food preservation, or even describe a person's comments.

Academic

Adjective

1. (of speech) painful or bitter
   • salt scorn- Shakespeare
   • a salt apology

Noun

1. the taste experience when common salt is taken into the mouth
2. negotiations between the United States and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics opened in 1969 in Helsinki designed to limit both countries' stock of nuclear weapons
3. white crystalline form of especially sodium chloride used to season and preserve food
4. a compound formed by replacing hydrogen in an acid by a metal (or a radical that acts like a metal)

Verb

1. preserve with salt
   • people used to salt meats on ships
2. add zest or liveliness to
   • She salts her lectures with jokes
3. sprinkle as if with salt
   • the rebels had salted the fields with mines and traps
4. add salt to

Synonyms

• saltiness
• salinity
• Strategic Arms Limitation Talks
• SALT
• table salt
• common salt