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Words, grammatical forms and meanings linked to the ontology.

word salad en · NOUN

Pronunciation

  • /ˈwɜː(ɹ)d ˈsæləd/
  • (Southern-England) audio
  • (General-American) audio

Etymology

From word + salad, based on the notion that salads offer varied bulk, yet do not substantially provide sustained nutrition.

Meanings

  1. (uncountable, usually) A nonsensical assemblage of words, typical of schizophrenia, Wernicke's aphasia, and some other mental disorders.
    • All of his other verbal offerings were continuous word-salad—a mixture of made-up sounds, syllables, words, and incomplete phrases. 2018, Bob Bertolino, PhD, Effective Counseling and Psychotherapy: An Evidence-Based Approach, Springer Publishing Company, →ISBN, page 120:
  2. (uncountable, usually) Meaningless text generated by a computer.
    • Results will be shown for recognition, prediction, and separation of regular input from word salad (random sequences of words). 2003, Bjørnar Tessem, Eighth Scandinavian Conference on Artificial Intelligence: SCAI'03, IOS Press, →ISBN, page 107:
  3. (uncountable, usually) An intentionally nonsensical and voluminous statement.
    • Chris Wallace asked @GovAbbott why he didn't complain about migrant abuse when Trump was President and he launched into word salad, with no real answer. 2021, Jeremy Newberger, Twitter:

Forms

SpellingFeaturesLabelsSource
word-salad alternative lexicographic
word salads Number=Plur lexicographic

Antonyms

wordsmithing

Relateds

word vomit

Translations (6)

ru слове́сная окро́шка (a nonsensical assemblage of words, typical of schizophrenia) · pl bełkot (a nonsensical assemblage of words, typical of schizophrenia) · tr laf salatası (a nonsensical assemblage of words, typical of schizophrenia) · pt salada de palavras (a nonsensical assemblage of words, typical of schizophrenia) · ru слове́сный сала́т (a nonsensical assemblage of words, typical of schizophrenia) · fr salade de mots (a nonsensical assemblage of words, typical of schizophrenia)