English Explanatory Dictionary

salmon

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. 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.
  2. A meal or dish made from this fish.
  3. A pale pinkish-orange colour, the colour of cooked salmon.
  4. The upper bricks in a kiln which receive the least heat.
  5. snout (tobacco; from salmon and trout)
  6. canned fish, usually mackerel.
adj
  1. Having a pale pinkish-orange colour.
verb
  1. To ride a bicycle the wrong way down a one-way street.
name
  1. A surname.
  2. A placename
  3. A city, the county seat of Lemhi County, Idaho, United States, situated on the Salmon River, after which it was probably named.
  4. Ellipsis of Salmon River.
name
  1. The father of Boaz by Rahab; the son of Nahshon (biblical figure).

Pronunciation

să'mən /ˈsæmən/ En-us-salmon.ogg /ˈsælmən/ /ˈsɑmən/ /ˈsamən/ /ˈsalmən/ /ˈsalmon/

Word forms

salmon salmons salmoning salmoned Salmen

Etymology

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.

Synonyms

lax lox salmon pink

Related words

samlet alevin anadromous arctic char blackfish coarse fish gravlax grilse kelt kipper lox parr redfish smolt sockeye trout yolk fry Burton Salmon

Derived words

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
This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.
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