salts

Noun

salt (countable and uncountable, plural salts)

1. A common substance, chemically consisting mainly of sodium chloride (NaCl), used extensively as a food ingredient, seasoning, condiment, and preservative.
   • Near-synonyms: table salt, rock salt, road salt

   Synonyms:

   common salt, table salt, rock salt, road salt

2. One of the compounds formed from the reaction of an acid with a base, where a positive ion replaces a hydrogen of the acid.
3. (countable, uncommon) A salt marsh, a saline marsh at the shore of a sea.
4. (countable, slang) A sailor (also old salt).
   • Around the door are generally to be seen, laughing and gossiping, clusters of old salts.1850, Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter
5. A sequence of random data added to plain text data (such as passwords or messages) prior to encryption or hashing, in order to make brute force decryption more difficult.
6. A person who seeks employment at a company in order to (once employed by it) help unionize it.

See all 35 meanings of salt