word salad

noun

1

psychology : unintelligible, extremely disorganized speech or writing manifested as a symptom of a mental disorder (such as schizophrenia)

Damage to Wernicke's area can result in the loss of semantic associations … . Trying to speak results in garbled, nonsensical juxtapositions that neuroscientists call "word salad".

—Duncan Graham-Rowe

2

: a string of empty, incoherent, unintelligible, or nonsensical words or comments

In the moments when the debate wasn't in circus form it seemed very conventional and very one-sided, with one candidate who could give complete, coherent and informed answers about issues and the other who specialized in word salad.

—Robert Schlesinger

… composed an essay that was a word salad of solemn academic jargon.

—George Will

Examples of word salad in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Hoping for better results is the desperate word salad sprouted by someone who has no hope of solving the problem. —Katie Woo, The Athletic, 20 Aug. 2024

Early in the campaign, her answers to tough questions often devolved into word salad. —Doyle McManus, Los Angeles Times, 4 Nov. 2024

A little personal attack here, a lot of lying there, plenty of word salad in the middle. —Bill Goodykoontz, The Arizona Republic, 2 Oct. 2024

This erroneous word salad — which was widely mocked on social media afterwards — and the rhetoric of the debate in general was top of mind for Ferrell and Steele the next day. —Lauren Huff, EW.com, 27 Sep. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1904, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Medical Definition

word salad

noun

word sal·​ad -ˌsal-əd 

: a jumble of extremely incoherent speech as sometimes observed in schizophrenia