salary
Syllables: sal·a·ryUK/ˈsæləɹi/
More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations
Scotland/ˈsaləɾe/
salary noun: a fixed amount of money paid to a worker, usually calculated on a monthly or annual basis, not hourly, as wages. Implies a degree of professionalism and/or autonomy.
Noun
salary (plural salaries)
- A fixed amount of money paid to a worker, usually calculated on a monthly or annual basis, not hourly, as wages. Implies a degree of professionalism and/or autonomy.
- This is hire and salary, not revenge.c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac...
- Andrew Houſtoun and Adam Muſhet, being Tackſmen of the Excize, did Imploy Thomas Rue to be their Collector, and gave him a Sallary of 30. pound Sterling for a year.1668 July 3rd, James Dalrymple, “Thomas Rue contra Andrew Houſtoun” in The Deciſions of the Lords of Council & Seſſion I (Edinburgh, 1683), page 547
Verb
salary (third-person singular simple present salaries, present participle salarying, simple past and past participle salaried)
- To pay on the basis of a period of a week or longer, especially to convert from another form of compensation.
Adjective
salary (comparative more salary, superlative most salary)
salary meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
salary in Hindi
- fixed amount of money paid on monthly or annual basis
- वेतन vetan, तनख़्वाह tanxvāh, मासिक वेतन māsik vetan, दिहाड़ी dihāṛī, पगार pagār, मेहनताना mehantānā
salary in Tamil
- fixed amount of money paid on monthly or annual basis
- சம்பளம் campaḷam
salary in Marathi
- fixed amount of money paid on monthly or annual basis
- पगार pagār
salary in Urdu
- fixed amount of money paid on monthly or annual basis
- ویتَن vetan, اُجْرَت ujrat, تَنْخواہ tanxvāh, سَیلْری sailrī, مُشاہَرَہ muśāhara, مِحَنْتانَہ mihantāna
More languagesFewer languages
- salary in Bengali
- বেতন beton, উজরত ujrot
- salary in Telugu
- జీతం jītaṁ
- salary in Malayalam
- കൂലി kūli, ശമ്പളം śampaḷaṁ
- salary in Kannada
- ಸಂಬಳ sambaḷa
- salary in Punjabi
- ਤਨਖਾਹ, ਤਨਖ਼ਾਹ
- salary in Gujarati
- પગાર pagār, વેતન vetan, દરમાયો darmāyo, મુસારો musāro
- salary in Odia
- ଦରମା, ବେତନ
- salary in Assamese
- বেতন beton
- salary in Nepali
- वेतन, तलब, तलबमा
- salary in Pashto
- معاش ma'āš, تنخا tanxā, مهينه mahina
- salary in Tagalog
- suweldo, pasahod, sahod
- salary in Arabic
- رَاتِب rātib, أَجْر ʔajr, مَعَاش maʕāš, أُجْرَة ʔujra
- salary in Malay
- gaji, ujrah
- salary in Indonesian
- gaji
- salary in Thai
- เงินเดือน ngən-dʉʉan, ค่าจ้าง kâa-jâang
- salary in Vietnamese
- lương
- salary in Myanmar
- လုပ်ခ luphka.
Examples of salary in a sentence
- The money from renting out a spare room can augment a salary.
- Just about 65 k of Jack's full salary comes from servicing the Baker account.
- Last month less of my salary was taken up with household expenses.
Forms of salary
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | salaries |
| alternative form (obsolete) | sallary |
| alternative form (obsolete) | sellary |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | salaries |
| present participle | salarying |
| past participle | salaried |
| past | salaried |
| Adjective | |
| comparative | more salary |
| superlative | most salary |
Origin of salary
From Middle English salarie, from Anglo-Norman salarie, from Old French salaire, from Latin salārium (“wages”), the neuter form of the adjective salārius (“related to salt”), from sal (“salt”). There have been various attempts to explain how the Latin term for “wages” came from the adjective “related to salt”. It is generally assumed that salārium was an abbreviation of salārium argentum (“salt money”), though that phrase is not attested. A commonly cited theory states that the phrase meant “money consisting of salt”, because, supposedly, Roman soldiers were sometimes paid in salt, but there is no evidence for either of these claims from ancient sources. Another is that the phrase meant “money used to buy salt [and other miscellaneous items]”.
Words formed from salary
Phrases with salary
Words that rhyme with salary
Questions about salary
- What does salary mean?
- Salary means a fixed amount of money paid to a worker, usually calculated on a monthly or annual basis, not hourly, as wages. Implies a degree of professionalism and/or autonomy.
- What is salary in Hindi?
- Salary in Hindi is वेतन (vetan), तनख़्वाह (tanxvāh), मासिक वेतन (māsik vetan). See Salary meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is salary?
- Salary can be a noun, a verb or an adjective.
- How do you pronounce salary?
- Salary is pronounced /ˈsæləɹi/ (UK).
- What is the plural of salary?
- The plural of salary is salaries.
Words near salary in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: salary (page history and authors); കൂലി (Malayalam) (page history and authors); ಸಂಬಳ (Kannada) (page history and authors); salary (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); salary (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); salary (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-salary.ogg.
Cite this entry: “salary.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/salary. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.