saliva
Syllables: sa·li·va/səˈlaɪvə/
saliva noun: a clear, slightly alkaline liquid secreted into the mouth by the salivary glands and mucous glands, consisting of water, mucin, protein, and enzymes. It moistens the mouth, lubricates ingested food, and begins the breakdown of starches.
Noun
saliva (countable and uncountable, plural salivas or salivae or salivæ)
Verb
saliva (third-person singular simple present salivas, present participle salivaing, simple past and past participle salivaed)
- to salivate
Proper noun capitalized: Saliva
Saliva
- Alternative form of Saliba (“language”).
saliva meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
saliva in Hindi
- liquid secreted into the mouth
- लार lār, राल rāl
saliva in Tamil
- liquid secreted into the mouth
- உமிழ்நீர் umiḻnīr, எச்சில் eccil, எச்சை eccai
saliva in Marathi
- लाळ, लाळे, लाळा
saliva in Urdu
- liquid secreted into the mouth
- لار lār, رال rāl
More languagesFewer languages
- saliva in Bengali
- লালা lala, থুতু thutu
- saliva in Telugu
- లాలాజలం lālājalaṁ
- saliva in Malayalam
- ഉമിനീർ
- saliva in Kannada
- ಲಾಲಾರಸ, ಲಾಲಾರಸದ
- saliva in Punjabi
- ਰਾਲ਼ rāḷ, رال rāl
- saliva in Gujarati
- લાળ
- saliva in Odia
- ଲାଳ
- saliva in Sinhala
- කෙළ keḷa
- saliva in Assamese
- লালটি laloti, লেলাউটি lelauti
- saliva in Pashto
- زيړې zyaṛé, ښيالمې x̌yãlme
- saliva in Tagalog
- lura, laway
- saliva in Arabic
- لُعَاب luʕāb, رِيق rīq, بُزَاق buzāq
- saliva in Indonesian
- air ludah, air liur, ludah, liur
- saliva in Thai
- น้ำลาย náam-laai
- saliva in Vietnamese
- nước bọt, nước miếng, nước dãi
- saliva in Myanmar
- လျှာရည် hlyarany, သွားရည် swa:rany
- Sindhi
- ٿڪ thuka, لعاب lu'aabu
- Dhivehi
- ކުޅު kuḷu
- Dzongkha
- ཁ་ཆུ kha chu
Examples of saliva in a sentence
- Venom evolved from saliva and it's used primarily for catching and digesting prey.
- The seasoning is a kaleidoscope of Day-Glo dust particles that perishes under saliva and tongue.
- To detect the microbes, he had to collect the saliva of a mad-dog.
Synonyms of saliva
Forms of saliva
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | salivas |
| plural | salivae |
| plural | salivæ |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | salivas |
| present participle | salivaing |
| past participle | salivaed |
| past | salivaed |
Origin of saliva
A learned borrowing from Latin salīva (“spittle”), replacing or merging with Middle English salive, salve (“saliva”), from the same Latin source. Further origin uncertain. Perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *salw-, *sal- (“dirt, dirty”), cognate with Old English salu (“dark, dusky”). More at sallow. Displaced Middle English slaver, slavere ("saliva"; whence Modern English slaver); and Middle English spyttle, spetel, spatel, spotel ("saliva"; whence Modern English spittle, spettle, spattle).
Words formed from saliva
Phrases with saliva
Words that rhyme with saliva
Questions about saliva
- What does saliva mean?
- Saliva means a clear, slightly alkaline liquid secreted into the mouth by the salivary glands and mucous glands, consisting of water, mucin, protein, and enzymes. It moistens the mouth, lubricates ingested food, and begins the breakdown of starches.
- What is saliva in Hindi?
- Saliva in Hindi is लार (lār), राल (rāl). See Saliva meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is saliva?
- Saliva can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce saliva?
- Saliva is pronounced /səˈlaɪvə/.
- What is the plural of saliva?
- The plural of saliva is salivas.
Words near saliva in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: saliva (page history and authors); Saliva (page history and authors); saliva (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); saliva (Malayalam, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); saliva (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); saliva (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); saliva (Odia, 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.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-saliva.wav.
Cite this entry: “saliva.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/saliva. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.