(redirected from takes with a grain of salt)
Also found in: Dictionary, Thesaurus, Medical, Idioms.


chemical compound (other than water) formed by a chemical reaction between an acid and a base (see acids and basesacids and bases,
..... Click the link for more information.

Characteristics and Classification of Salts

The most familiar salt is sodium chloridesodium chloride,
NaCl, common salt. Properties

..... Click the link for more information.
chemical reaction, according to the Arrhenius theory of acids and bases, in which a water solution of acid is mixed with a water solution of base to form a salt and water; this reaction is complete only if the resulting solution has neither acidic nor basic
..... Click the link for more information.
..... Click the link for more information.
); they are made up of ionsion,

..... Click the link for more information.
 rather than molecules. The chemical formulaformula,
..... Click the link for more information.
..... Click the link for more information.

..... Click the link for more information.

..... Click the link for more information.
, chemical compound that contains water. A common hydrate is the familiar blue vitriol, a crystalline form of cupric sulfate. Chemically, it is cupric sulfate pentahydrate, CuSO4·5H2O.
..... Click the link for more information.

Salts are often grouped according to the negative ion they contain, e.g., bicarbonatebicarbonate
or hydrogen carbonate,
chemical compound containing the bicarbonate radical, -HCO3. The most familiar of such compounds is sodium bicarbonate (baking soda). See carbonate.
..... Click the link for more information.
 or carbonatecarbonate
..... Click the link for more information.
, chloratechlorate
and perchlorate

Chloric acid, HClO3·7H2
..... Click the link for more information.
, chloridechloride
..... Click the link for more information.
, cyanidecyanide
..... Click the link for more information.
, fulminatefulminate
, any salt of fulminic acid, HONC, a highly unstable compound known only in solution. The term is most commonly applied to the explosive mercury (II) fulminate, also called fulminate of mercury, Hg(ONC)2. The pure compound forms white cubic crystals.
..... Click the link for more information.
, nitratenitrate,
..... Click the link for more information.
, phosphatephosphate,
..... Click the link for more information.
, silicatesilicate,
chemical compound containing silicon, oxygen, and one or more metals, e.g., aluminum, barium, beryllium, calcium, iron, magnesium, manganese, potassium, sodium, or zirconium. Silicates may be considered chemically as salts of the various silicic acids.
..... Click the link for more information.
, sulfatesulfate,
..... Click the link for more information.
, or sulfidesulfide,
chemical compound containing sulfur and one other element or sulfur and a radical. Sulfides may be salts or esters of hydrogen sulfide, H2S, or may be formed directly, e.g., by heating a metal with sulfur.
..... Click the link for more information.

Preparation of Salts

Salts are also prepared by methods other than neutralization. A metal can combine directly with a nonmetal to form a salt; e.g., sodium metal reacts with chlorine gas to form sodium chloride. A metal may react with a dilute acid to form a salt and release hydrogen gas; e.g., zinc reacts with dilute sulfuric acid to form zinc sulfate and hydrogen. A metal oxide may react with an acid to form a salt and water; e.g., calcium oxide reacts with carbonic acid to form calcium carbonate and water. A base can react with a nonmetallic oxide to form a salt and water; e.g., sodium hydroxide reacts with carbon dioxide to form sodium carbonate and water. Two salts may react with one another (in solution) to form two new salts; e.g., barium chloride and sodium sulfate react in solution to form barium sulfate (as an insoluble precipitate) and sodium chloride (which remains in solution). A salt may react with an acid to form a different salt and acid; e.g., sodium chloride and sulfuric acid react when heated to form sodium sulfate and release hydrogen chloride gas (which in solution forms hydrochloric acid). A salt undergoes dissociationdissociation,
..... Click the link for more information.
 when it dissolves in a polar solvent, e.g., water, the extent of dissociation depending both on the salt and the solvent.




Strategic Arms Limitation Talks: see disarmament, nucleardisarmament, nuclear,
..... Click the link for more information.


Abbrev. for Southern African Large Telescope.


(religion, spiritualism, and occult)

Much like iron, salt was believed to have supernatural origins and has become an essential part of most religious and magical rituals. The very word "salary" comes from the Latin salarium meaning "salt allowance," showing it to have great worth. The habitual use of salt is connected with the advance from nomadic to agricultural life. The gods were worshiped as the givers of the foods necessary for life; so salt, frequently together with bread, was associated with offerings to the deities. This was especially prevalent among the Greeks and Romans.

Since it is so essential to life—both human and animal—salt symbolically represents life. It is added to baptismal water, to water used in exorcism, and to the holy water used on a Wiccan altar. Some traditions of Witchcraft mark their Circle with salt. Magically, it is considered a great defense against evil. For this reason, people in the Middle Ages believed it to be a tool for preventing witchcraft and for destroying a witch. Even today, in the Ozarks, it is believed that if a woman complains that her food tastes too salty, she may well be a witch. There is an old saying in the region: "The Devil hates salt."

Since salt represents life, to spill salt is a bad omen for it presages spilling blood. In alchemy it represents the principle of body, the female, and earth. On the Wiccan and ceremonial altars it represents the element of earth. In the old British custom of "first-footing" (being the first person of the new year to set foot across another's doorstep), salt is one of the gifts presented by the first-footer to the homeowner.

Salt used to mark the line at the meal table between family or close friends and those who were casual visitors or menials. The former sat at the head of the table, while the latter sat "below the salt"—below where the salt cellar stood on the table.

Salt and incense were both religious and economic necessities of the ancient world. Via Lalaria, as one of the oldest roads in Italy, was used for moving the salt of Ostia to the Sabine country. Herodotus mentions the caravan route connecting the many oases of the Libyan desert as a road for the transportation of salt.

In Wiccan rituals, sea salt is the preferred type, although any regular salt is acceptable. There are various ways of processing sea salt, the traditional and possibly the oldest and purest method being by allowing the wind and sun alone to dry ocean brine that is channeled from the open sea into pristine shallow clay ponds. In this manner, Celtic Brittany farmers produce some of the finest and purest sea salt in the world.



a mountain range in northern Pakistan, between the valleys of the Indus and Jhelum rivers. The range stretches for a length of approximately 300 km, with elevations to 1,522 m (Mount Sakesar). The Salt Range constitutes a cuesta-like ledge below the southern edge of the Potwar Plateau. It is composed of crystalline rocks overlain with limestones and dolomites. There are large deposits of rock salt at Khewra and Nurpur and other sites. On the slopes there are separate pine, acacia, and olive groves.



the name of a class of chemical compounds that are crystalline under ordinary conditions and for which an ionic structure is typical. According to the theory of electrolytic dissociation, salts are chemical compounds that in solution dissociate into positively charged ions, or cations (mainly, of metals), and negatively charged ions, or anions. The various types of salts include normal, acid, basic, double, mixed, and complex salts. The most common laboratory method for the preparation of salts is the reactions of acids with bases, as well as reactions of acids with metals and, in many cases (depending on the electromotive forces series), reactions of salts themselves with metals.

A characteristic property of salts is solubility in polar solvents, especially water. In nature, accumulations of salts are formed mainly by sedimentation from aqueous solutions in inland sea basins (Aral Sea, Dead Sea) or in inlets almost cut off from the sea (Kara-Bogaz-Gol), as well as in closed mainland lakes (El’ton, Baskunchak).

Salts were known in antiquity. In addition to their traditional use in foods and medicine, salts came to be used industrially with the development of the chemical, glassmaking, leather, textile, and metallurgical industries. Some salts are used as mineral fertilizers.


Nekrasov, B. V. Osnovy obshchei khimii, vols. [1–2], 3rd ed. Moscow, 1973.

What does it mean when you dream about salt?

Used as seasoning in food, salt symbolizes flavor or piquancy. As one of the three primary elements of matter in alchemy representing—in contrast to mercury and sulfur—the principle of fixity and solidity, salt symbolizes someone who is steadfast and dependable, “the salt of the earth.”


The reaction product when a metal displaces the hydrogen of an acid; for example, H2SO4+2NaOH→Na2SO4(a salt) + 2H2O.
To add an accelerator or retardant to cement.
(mining engineering)
To introduce extra amounts of a valuable or waste mineral into a sample to be assayed.
To artificially enrich, as a mine, usually with fraudulent intent.


1. a white powder or colourless crystalline solid, consisting mainly of sodium chloride and used for seasoning and preserving food
2. preserved in, flooded with, containing, or growing in salt or salty water
3. Chem any of a class of usually crystalline solid compounds that are formed from, or can be regarded as formed from, an acid and a base by replacement of one or more hydrogen atoms in the acid molecules by positive ions from the base


Strategic Arms Limitation Talks or Treaty






A tiny bit of near-random data inserted where too much regularity would be undesirable; a data frob (sense 1). For example, the Unix crypt(3) manual page mentions that "the salt string is used to perturb the DES algorithm in one of 4096 different ways."


(1) (Speech Application Language Tags) Extensions to HTML, XHTML and XML for voice recognition and synthesized speech and audio output. SALT is designed to support mixed modes including audio, video, text and graphics, depending on the device in the user's hands. For more information, visit the SALT Forum at

(2) (salt) In cryptography, a random number that is added to the encryption key or to a password to protect them from disclosure. See cryptography.


Salt is one of the most abundant chemicals on Earth. Dreaming about it suggests that you may be thinking about or desiring those things that are dependable and, at the same time, exciting (salt = spice of life). If you associate an individual with the salt in your dreams you may be giving that person the attributes that were just mentioned.