healthful implies a positive contribution to a healthy condition.
a healthful diet
wholesome applies to what benefits, builds up, or sustains physically, mentally, or spiritually.
wholesome foods
the movie is wholesome family entertainment
salubrious applies chiefly to the helpful effects of climate or air.
cool and salubrious weather
salutary describes something corrective or beneficially effective, even though it may in itself be unpleasant.
a salutary warning that resulted in increased production
Examples of salutary in a Sentence
The accident should be a salutary lesson to be more careful.
the low interest rates should have a salutary effect on business
Recent Examples on the WebBy acceding to public opinion and false claims of salutary effects, state governments are exposing their constituents to health hazards.—Dr. Jeffrey Lieberman, TIME, 3 May 2024 But entering a lot of little low-stakes competitions, especially as part of a team, can have salutary effects.—Letters To The Editor, The Mercury News, 26 Apr. 2024 According to the school, the experiment has had a salutary effect both on student classroom productivity and on campus social life.—Kyle Chayka, The New Yorker, 10 Apr. 2024 Thankfully, there’s no sign of the twisted, defensive, loudmouth race-baiting that marks the legislative misbehavior of Maxine Waters, Sheila Jackson Lee, Cori Bush, Ayanna Pressley, and their ilk in Regina King’s salutary portrayal.—Armond White, National Review, 27 Mar. 2024 His emphasis on the logistics of solidarity reminds us that moral advances are neither a salutary by-product of economics or technology, as Zakaria seems to think, nor a matter of progressive inevitability.—Gideon Lewis-Kraus, The New Yorker, 25 Mar. 2024 And ignore the obvious truth that the imposition of additional constraints on LNG exports will make Europe and others more dependent upon the Putin regime for energy supplies, not a salutary outcome for U.S. foreign-policy interests.—Benjamin Zycher, National Review, 25 Jan. 2024 But her Celebration Tour stop certainly lived up to that salutary name, celebrating Madonna’s four-decade body of work and its culture-shaking impact.—Brian McCollum, Detroit Free Press, 16 Jan. 2024 Spotify has seen a salutary flywheel effect when popular podcasters feature music or artists on their shows.—Todd Spangler, Variety, 3 Feb. 2024
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'salutary.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Word History
Etymology
Middle French salutaire, from Latin salutaris, from salut-, salus health
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