Word.ws English Dictionary

Salem

/ˈseɪləm/

Salem proper noun: the biblical place ruled by Melchizedek; mostly identified with Jerusalem.

Proper noun (1)

Salem (countable and uncountable, plural Salems)

  1. The biblical place ruled by Melchizedek; mostly identified with Jerusalem.
  2. The capital city of Oregon, and the county seat of Marion County.
    • A man with an eight-inch (20-cm) knife walked into the lobby of the Union Gospel Mission in Salem around 7:15 p.m., the Salem Police Department said on Monday.2025 June 2, “Stabbing attack at Oregon homeless shelter sends 11 people to hospital, man in custody”, in CNN, sourced from Associated Press, archived from the original on 22 Jul 2025
  3. A city, the county seat of Fulton County, Arkansas.
  4. An unincorporated community in Pike County, Arkansas.
  5. A census-designated place in Saline County, Arkansas.
  6. A town in New London County, Connecticut.
  7. A city, the county seat of Marion County, Illinois.
  8. A city, the county seat of Washington County, Indiana.
  9. A city in Massachusetts, United States and one of the two county seats of Essex County; the site of infamous witch-hunts, trials and executions in 1692.
  10. A city, the county seat of Dent County, Missouri.
    • The third Iraq veteran -- 23-year-old Cloy Richards of Salem, Missouri, who was wounded in combat -- will avoid losing his disability benefits after agreeing not to wear his uniform at future protests, the Marine Corps said.2007 August 9, David Morgan, “Anti-war Iraq vets face punishment over protest”, in Reuters
    • Strebe said she installed five surveillance cameras at her home and now fuels her car only at night to avoid neighbors. Moving from Salem would mean leaving extended family, but she said the small city has grown too hostile to stay.2025 November 19, Raphael Satter and A.J. Vicens, “The Charlie Kirk purge: How 600 Americans were punished in a pro-Trump crackdown”, in Reuters
  11. A town in Rockingham County, New Hampshire.
  12. A city, the county seat of Salem County, New Jersey.
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  1. A city, the county seat of McCook County, South Dakota.
  2. An independent city, the county seat of Roanoke County, Virginia.
  3. An unincorporated community and former town, now in Salem Lakes, Kenosha County, Wisconsin.
  4. A number of townships, listed under Salem Township.
  5. A municipality of Stockholm, Sweden.
  6. A town in Montserrat, which was evacuated and later resettled.
  7. A female given name from Hebrew.

Proper noun (2)

Salem

  1. A town and district in Tamil Nadu, India.

Proper noun (3)

Salem (plural Salems)

  1. A male given name from Arabic.
  2. A surname from Arabic.

Forms of Salem

pluralSalems

Origin of Salem

From Biblical Hebrew שָׁלֵם (šālēm) (Genesis 14:18).

Borrowed from Tamil சேலம் (cēlam).

Borrowed from Arabic سَالِم (sālim).

Words formed from Salem

Phrases with Salem

Questions about Salem

What does Salem mean?
Salem means the biblical place ruled by Melchizedek; mostly identified with Jerusalem.
What part of speech is Salem?
Salem is a proper noun.
How do you pronounce Salem?
Salem is pronounced /ˈseɪləm/.

Words near Salem in the dictionary

  1. Salei
  2. Salek
  3. Salekhard
  4. Saleks
  5. saleless
  6. Salem
  7. Salem County
  8. Salem Lakes
  9. Salem Village
  10. salema
  11. salemas

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Salem (page history and authors). 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: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-Salem.wav.

Cite this entry: “Salem.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/salem. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.