Definition

1. Noun:

   • Salt: A white, crystalline substance with a salty taste, primarily sodium chloride (NaCl), used as a seasoning and food preservative. It is obtained from seawater or mined from the earth.
   • (Chemistry) Salt: A compound formed by the reaction of an acid with a base, consisting of positive ions (cations) and negative ions (anions).

2. Verb:

   • To pickle; to preserve with salt: The process of treating food (like vegetables, meat, or fish) with salt or brine to preserve it or to create a fermented, sour dish.

Usage Examples

• Noun:

  • Cho thêm một chút muối vào canh. (Add a little salt to the soup.)
  • Muối là một khoáng chất thiết yếu cho cơ thể. (Salt is an essential mineral for the body.)
  • Đây là một loại muối vô cơ. (This is an inorganic salt.)

• Verb:

  • Bà tôi thường muối dưa cải vào mùa đông. (My grandmother often pickles mustard greens in winter.)
  • Cá được muối kỹ để bảo quản lâu ngày. (The fish is salted thoroughly to preserve it for a long time.)

Advanced Usage

• "muối mặt": To feel ashamed or embarrassed.

  • Hành động đó khiến anh ta muối mặt với bạn bè. (That action made him feel ashamed in front of his friends.)

• "muối tiêu": A seasoning mixture of salt and pepper; figuratively, to add spice or interest to something.

  • Câu chuyện được kể với chút muối tiêu cho hấp dẫn. (The story was told with a little spice to make it interesting.)

Variants and Related Words

• Muối biển (n): Sea salt.
• Muối mỏ / Muối hầm (n): Rock salt.
• Muối i-ốt (n): Iodized salt.
• Muối ăn (n): Table salt.
• Đồ muối / Dưa muối (n): Pickled vegetables.
• Ruộng muối / Đầm muối (n): Salt pan; salt marsh.
• Diêm dân (n): Salt worker (a person who produces salt).
• Muối xát / Ướp muối (v): To rub with salt; to cure with salt.

Synonyms

• Noun: Diêm (a more literary/formal term for salt, also used in some compounds).
• Verb: Làm mắm (to make fish sauce, a related preservation method); Ướp (to marinate, which can involve salt).

Related Phrases (Collocations)

• Nêm muối: To season with salt.
  • Cô ấy nêm muối vừa ăn. (She seasons with just the right amount of salt.)
• Bỏ muối vào lòng/vết thương: Literally "to put salt in the wound/heart"; to aggravate someone's pain or sorrow.
  • Nhắc lại chuyện cũ là bỏ muối vào lòng anh ấy. (Bringing up the past is like rubbing salt in his wound.)

Related Idioms

• Muối bỏ bể: Literally "a grain of salt thrown into the ocean"; a drop in the bucket; something insignificant or a tiny contribution to a vast whole.
  • Số tiền quyên góp ấy so với tổng thiệt hại chỉ là muối bỏ bể. (That donated amount is just a drop in the bucket compared to the total damage.)
• Ăn muối nhiều hơn ăn cơm, đi cày nhiều hơn đi đỗ: Literally "to have eaten more salt than rice, to have plowed more than rested"; to have vast life experience, especially through hardship.
  • Cụ ấy ăn muối nhiều hơn cháu ăn cơm, nên cụ hiểu đời lắm. (He has much more life experience than you, so he understands the ways of the world.)

noun

1. salt
   • ruộng muối
     salt-marsh