salty

UK/ˈsɒlti/US/ˈsɔlti/

adjectiveA2+4 meanings Common in everyday speech and writing · #5,307 of 15,258leans spoken

Salty means tasting of salt. Crisps, olives straight out of the jar, a mouthful of seawater you did not mean to take, the rim of a margarita glass.

It runs the whole way from pleasant to too much: soup can be nicely salty or so salty you push the bowl away. Sweat, tears and the air near the coast are salty as well. Then there is the newer sense that took over online — a salty person is bitter about losing, and 'why are you so salty?' has nothing to do with food. Old sailors get called salty too, meaning weathered and rough at the edges. Say salty of the taste and the mood; say salted of the thing you put salt on.

Definitions of salty

1adjectivesaltyTasting of salt.A2+~64%
“The cheese was harder and saltier than she expected.”
- Said"That's far too salty for me. Did you use the whole packet?"
- WrittenThe coastal air left everything on the balcony faintly salty, even the books.
- UsedServe something salty with the drinks; it keeps people thirsty.
- ContrastSalty, not sweet. Sweet is sugar and fruit; salty is crisps, the sea and tears. sweet →
- Not thisSalt itself is not salty; it is salt. Salty is how food tastes with too much of it.
- Exchange"Is the soup salty?""A bit. Squeeze some lemon in."
Patternsalty + noun (snack, water, taste) · too salty · a salty tang · slightly / very salty
2adjectivecontainingContaining salt; belonging to the sea.B1~32%
“Salty air had rusted the door hinges.”
3adjectivebitterBitter and annoyed, especially about losing.B2~2%
“He is still salty about the referee's decision.”
4adjectiveweatheredWeathered and rough in manner, said of sailors.C1~2%
“The bar was full of salty old fishermen.”

Shares are an estimate: a language model read 9 sentences found in the wild and placed 9 of them on a sense — a count of our sample, not a measurement of English.

Remember it

SALTy → full of SALT

It is salt + y: sea water in your mouth, a bag of chips, the soup after somebody dropped the salt in.

hooks ontosalt

Where it comes from

Salty is salt with -y on the end, and the same plain build turns up all round the North Sea: Dutch zoutig, German salzig, West Frisian sâltich. Salt itself goes back to a Proto-Indo-European root, sḗh₂l. The bad-tempered sense is much newer and comes from the flavour — sharp, stinging, a bit too much.

Proto-Indo-European
*sḗh₂l
Middle English
salti
English, today
salty

From Middle English salti. Equivalent to salt + y. Compare stq soaltig (“salty”), West Frisian sâltich (“salty”), Dutch zoutig (“salty”), German Low German soltig (“salty”), German salzig (“salty”). coarse; irritated, annoyed Referencing the sharp, 'spicy' flavor of salt.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in In the Kitchen, Texture & Touch

Practise this word

salty in the wild

Extra-salty liquorice is coated with salmiak salt or salmiak powder, or sometimes table salt.
Salty liquorice
Dutch, German and Nordic liquorice typically contains ammonium chloride instead of sodium chloride, prominently so in salty liquorice, which carries a salty rather than sweet flavour.
Liquorice (confectionery)
Ammonium chloride is mainly used in salty liquorice candy, with concentrations up to about 8%.
Liquorice (confectionery)
A salty dog is a cocktail made with gin or vodka and grapefruit juice, served in a highball glass with a salted rim.
Salty dog (cocktail)
In the north, there are salty marshes and fresh-water sources.
Wildlife of Mongolia

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

Related words

Definitions of salty

1adjectivesaltyTasting of salt.A2+~64%

“The cheese was harder and saltier than she expected.”

Said"That's far too salty for me. Did you use the whole packet?"
WrittenThe coastal air left everything on the balcony faintly salty, even the books.
UsedServe something salty with the drinks; it keeps people thirsty.
ContrastSalty, not sweet. Sweet is sugar and fruit; salty is crisps, the sea and tears. sweet →
Not thisSalt itself is not salty; it is salt. Salty is how food tastes with too much of it.
Exchange"Is the soup salty?""A bit. Squeeze some lemon in."

Patternsalty + noun (snack, water, taste) · too salty · a salty tang · slightly / very salty

2adjectivecontainingContaining salt; belonging to the sea.B1~32%

“Salty air had rusted the door hinges.”

3adjectivebitterBitter and annoyed, especially about losing.B2~2%

“He is still salty about the referee's decision.”

4adjectiveweatheredWeathered and rough in manner, said of sailors.C1~2%

“The bar was full of salty old fishermen.”

Shares are an estimate: a language model read 9 sentences found in the wild and placed 9 of them on a sense — a count of our sample, not a measurement of English.