salary

noun

sal·​a·​ry ˈsa-lə-rē 

ˈsal-rē

plural salaries

: fixed compensation paid regularly for services

salaried

ˈsa-lə-ˌrēd 

ˈsal-rēd

adjective

Synonyms

• emolument
• hire
• packet [British]
• pay
• pay envelope
• paycheck
• payment
• stipend
• wage

Examples of salary in a Sentence

She was offered a salary of $50,000 a year.

Employees receive an annual increase in salary.

Recent Examples on the Web

In the category of salary percentage increase, ESADE weighed in with an impressive 173% increase over the average salary of an entering student. —Dr. Marlena Corcoran, Forbes, 20 Feb. 2025

The price of each tender also rises with the salary cap each year. —Mike Kaye, Charlotte Observer, 20 Feb. 2025

Zoom in: Briner noted that premiums have been held at $25 per month, and that the number is likely to go up to $45 per month for workers making the lowest salaries. —Zachery Eanes, Axios, 19 Feb. 2025

Although feeding dying babies should surely qualify for the vague foreign aid waiver issued by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the salaries of the staff and the cost of the fuel to get the therapeutic food to hospitals like mine are not. —Jennifer Furin, TIME, 19 Feb. 2025

Word History

Etymology

Middle English salarie, salaire "compensation, payment," borrowed from Anglo-French (also continental Old French), borrowed from Latin salārium "official pay given to the holder of a civil or military post," noun derivative from neuter of salārius "of or relating to salt," from sal-, sāl "salt" + -ārius -ary entry 2 — more at salt entry 1

Note: The notion that Latin salārium originally referred to money given to Roman soldiers to buy salt is a popular one, but it has no basis in ancient sources. It rests on the inference that salārium was originally short for an unattested phrase salārium argentum "salt money," which would have been parallel to the contextually better attested words calceārium "money for shoes" (from calceus "shoe") or vestiārium "allowance in money or kind to provide for clothing" (from vestis "clothes"). The inference can be found in Charlton Lewis and Charles Short's A Latin Dictionary (1879), many times reprinted, though it was copied from earlier dictionaries, as the Latin-German dictionaries of Wilhelm Freund (1840) and I. J. G. Scheller (1783) (Scheller, however, takes dōnum "gift, prize" to have been the understood word). Pliny the Elder has been cited as support for the soldier's pay explanation, though the text of his Historia naturalis refers only to some undefined role salt played in relation to honors in war, "from which the word salārium is derived" ("[sal] honoribus etiam militiaeque interponitur salariis inde dictis"; 31.89). As Pliny is extolling the virtues of salt in this chapter, it seems likely that if he knew of a better explanation for the word, he would have mentioned it. Clearly salt was somehow involved in the notion of official compensation in early imperial Rome, but to speculate further on its function is no more than guessing. (Compare "Salt and salary: were Roman soldiers paid in salt?," blog post by New Zealand classicist Peter Gainsford, Kiwi Hellenist, January 11, 2017, available online 5/26/22.)

First Known Use

13th century, in the meaning defined above

Phrases Containing salary

• salary/pay review
• starting salary

Rhymes for salary

• calorie
• galerie
• gallery
• mallory

Kids Definition

salary

noun

sal·​a·​ry ˈsal-(ə-)rē 

plural salaries

: money paid at regular times for work or services : stipend

Etymology

Middle English salarie "money paid to a worker," from Latin salarium "salt money, pension, salary," derived from sal "salt"

Word Origin

The word salary is a loanword from Latin salarium, a derivative of sal, "salt," and perhaps originally short for salarium argentum, "salt money." According to a customary explanation, it was at one time money paid to Roman soldiers with which they were supposed to buy salt, but nothing in the known history of the word supports this. From the evidence of documents and inscriptions, the salarium was a fixed payment, introduced under the rule of Caesar Augustus, that was made to officials of a certain rank. The word was also applied to various other fees and payments to individuals by the Roman state or a community. Presumably salarium was a kind of euphemism, since the sums involved were much greater than would have been needed just to buy salt.

Legal Definition

salary

noun

sal·​a·​ry

plural salaries

: fixed compensation paid regularly for services

salaried adjective