salt of the earth
salt of the earth noun: a person or group of people considered to represent the most decent and admirable parts of humanity.
Noun
salt of the earth
- A person or group of people considered to represent the most decent and admirable parts of humanity.
- People who are firm but fair, and fair but firm, are the salt of the earth.
- Yee are the ſalt of the earth: But if the ſalt haue loſt his ſauour, wherewith ſhall it bee ſalted: It is thencefoꝛth good foꝛ nothing, but to be caſt out, and to be troden vnder foote of men.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Matthew 5:13
- Antonyms:
- scum of the earth
salt of the earth meaning in Arabic and Thai
salt of the earth in Arabic
- a decent, dependable person
- ملح الأرض
salt of the earth in Thai
- a decent, dependable person
- เกลือแห่งโลก glʉʉa-hɛ̀ng-lôok, เกลือแห่งแผ่นดินโลก glʉʉa-hɛ̀ng-pɛ̀n-din-lôok, คนดี kon-dii
Antonyms of salt of the earth
Origin of salt of the earth
Calque of Ancient Greek τὸ ἅλας τῆς γῆς (tò hálas tês gês) in the Book of Matthew, chapter 5, verse 13.
Questions about salt of the earth
- What does salt of the earth mean?
- Salt of the earth means a person or group of people considered to represent the most decent and admirable parts of humanity.
- What is salt of the earth in Arabic?
- Salt of the earth in Arabic is ملح الأرض. See Salt of the earth meaning in Arabic.
- What part of speech is salt of the earth?
- Salt of the earth is a noun.
Words near salt of the earth in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: salt of the earth (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: En-au-salt of the earth.ogg.
Cite this entry: “salt of the earth.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/salt_of_the_earth. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.