salmon
UK/ˈsæmən//ˈsæmən/
salmon noun: one of several species of fish, typically of the Salmoninae subfamily, brownish above with silvery sides and delicate pinkish-orange flesh; they ascend rivers to spawn.
Noun
salmon (countable and uncountable, plural salmon or salmons)
- One of several species of fish, typically of the Salmoninae subfamily, brownish above with silvery sides and delicate pinkish-orange flesh; they ascend rivers to spawn.
- grilled salmon
- salmon paté
- A meal or dish made from this fish.
- A pale pinkish-orange colour, the colour of cooked salmon.
- Synonyms:
- salmon pink
- The upper bricks in a kiln which receive the least heat.
- snout (tobacco; from salmon and trout)
- Got any salmon?1992, “Ebeneezer Goode”, performed by The Shamen
- canned fish, usually mackerel.
- Tinned mackerel is confusingly called ‘salmon’ in Sri Lanka. So this dish, in Sinhalese, is salmon hodi, or salmon in gravy. Now that I think on it, all tinned fish in Sri Lanka is called salmon.2018 July 29, Chath Ginige, “Spicy Mackerel Curry”, in akkis kitchen (blog), archived from the original on 23 Jul 2019
- With a thick gravy made up of onions, tomatoes, spices, and coconut milk this Sri Lankan salmon curry might breathe new life to those canned mackerels on your shelf.2018, Jehan Yusoof, “Sri Lankan canned fish curry(tin fish).”, in Island Smile (blog), archived from the original on 18 Jun 2025
Adjective
salmon (not comparable)
Verb
salmon (third-person singular simple present salmons, present participle salmoning, simple past and past participle salmoned)
- To ride a bicycle the wrong way down a one-way street.
- 2014: "Salmon, Don't Shoal: Learning The Lingo Of Safe Cycling" by Marc Silver, NPR
Some cities discourage salmoning with clever signage, like this in London: "If you can read this you are biking the wrong way."
- 2014: "Salmon, Don't Shoal: Learning The Lingo Of Safe Cycling" by Marc Silver, NPR
Proper noun (1) capitalized: Salmon
Salmon (countable and uncountable, plural Salmons)
- A surname.
- A city, the county seat of Lemhi County, Idaho, United States, situated on the Salmon River, after which it was probably named.
- Ellipsis of Salmon River.
Proper noun (2) capitalized: Salmon
Salmon
salmon meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
salmon in Hindi
- fish
- सामन sāman
salmon in Tamil
- fish
- ஸாமன் sāmaṉ
salmon in Marathi
- सॅल्मन, सालमन, सॅल्मनला
salmon in Urdu
- fish
- سامن sāman, سلیمانی مچھلی sulēmānī-machlī
More languagesFewer languages
- salmon in Bengali
- স্যামন sêmon
- salmon in Telugu
- సామన్ sāman
- salmon in Malayalam
- സാൽമൺ, സാൾമൺ, സാല്മൺ
- salmon in Kannada
- ಸ್ಯಾಮನ್ syāman
- salmon in Punjabi
- ਸਾਲਮਨ, ਸੈਲਮਨ
- salmon in Gujarati
- સામન sāman
- salmon in Odia
- ସାଲମନ, ସାଲମନ୍, ସାଲ୍ମନ୍
- salmon in Sinhala
- සෑමන් sǣman
- salmon in Nepali
- सालमन, साल्मोन, साल्मन
- salmon in Tagalog
- salmon
- salmon in Arabic
- حُوت سُلَيْمَان ḥūt sulaymān, سَلَمُون salamūn, سلمون salamun
- salmon in Indonesian
- bangbang
- salmon in Persian
- ماهی آزاد mâhi-âzâd, سالمون sâlmon
- salmon in Thai
- แซลมอน sɛɛl-mɔ̂n
- salmon in Vietnamese
- cá hồi
- salmon in Myanmar
- ဆယ်လမွန် hcaila.mwan
Examples of salmon in a sentence
- Salmon were becoming scarce in the river until the feds stepped in.
- A dish called "plank salmon" likely includes a salmon filet cooked on a plank.
- Today's dinner special is wild salmon, which we don't normally get a chance to offer.
Synonyms of salmon
Forms of salmon
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | salmon |
| plural | salmons |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | salmons |
| present participle | salmoning |
| past participle | salmoned |
| past | salmoned |
| Proper noun | |
| plural | Salmons |
| alternative form | Salmen |
Origin of salmon
From Middle English samoun, samon, saumon, from Anglo-Norman saumon, from Old French saumon, from Latin salmō, salmōn-. Widely displaced native Middle English lax, from Old English leax (whence modern dialectal lax). The unpronounced l was later inserted to make the word appear closer to its Latin root (compare words like debt, indict, receipt for the same spelling Latinizations). The verb sense “ride a bicycle the wrong way down a one-way street” alludes to salmon swimming upstream against the flow of a river to spawn.
* (Idaho, river): named after the fish, salmon
From Hebrew שַׂלְמוֹן (salmown).
Words formed from salmon
- Atlantic salmon
- Australian salmon
- bay salmon
- beachsalmon
- beaked salmon
- black salmon
- blueback salmon
- Brazilian salmon pink tarantula
- Burnett salmon
- Cape salmon
- caplin-scull salmon
- cherry salmon
- Chinook salmon
- chum salmon
- coho salmon
- colonial salmon
- Cornish salmon
- Danube salmon
- Dawson river salmon
- dog salmon
- fresh-water salmon
- giant salmon carp
- humpbacked salmon
- humpback salmon
- jack salmon
- kelp salmon
- king-of-the-salmon
- King Salmon
- kokanee salmon
- landlocked salmon
- land-locked salmon
- lomilomi salmon
- lomi salmon
- nonsalmon
- Nova Scotia salmon
- outside salmon
- Pacific salmon
- pink salmon
- quinnat salmon
- red salmon
- rock salmon
- saber-toothed salmon
- salcatonin
- salmon and trout
- Salmon Arm
- salmon-bellied racer
- salmonberry
- salmon bites
- salmonburger
- salmon caviar
- salmon-coloured
- salmon-crested cockatoo
- salmon day
- salmoner
- salmonet
- salmon gum
- salmonid
- salmonish
- salmon killer
- salmon ladder
Phrases with salmon
Words that rhyme with salmon
Questions about salmon
- What does salmon mean?
- Salmon means one of several species of fish, typically of the Salmoninae subfamily, brownish above with silvery sides and delicate pinkish-orange flesh; they ascend rivers to spawn.
- What is salmon in Hindi?
- Salmon in Hindi is सामन (sāman). See Salmon meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is salmon?
- Salmon can be a noun, an adjective, a verb or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce salmon?
- Salmon is pronounced /ˈsæmən/ (UK).
- What is the plural of salmon?
- The plural of salmon is salmon.
Words near salmon in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: salmon (page history and authors); Salmon (page history and authors); salmon (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); salmon (Malayalam, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); salmon (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); salmon (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); salmon (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-salmon.ogg.
Cite this entry: “salmon.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/salmon. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.