Celery or salary?
celery is a noun meaning “A European herb (Apium graveolens) of the carrot family”; salary is a noun meaning “A fixed amount of money paid to a worker, usually calculated on a monthly or…”. In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) salary is about 11 times as common as celery.
What is the difference between celery and salary?
| celery | salary | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | noun | noun, verb, adjective |
| Meaning | A European herb (Apium graveolens) of the carrot family The stalks of this herb eaten as a vegetable | A fixed amount of money paid to a worker, usually calculated on a monthly or annual basis, not hourly, as wages. Implies a degree of professionalism and/or… To pay on the basis of a period of a week or longer, especially to convert from another form of compensation |
| Example | none recorded | Andrew Houſtoun and Adam Muſhet, being Tackſmen of the Excize, did Imploy Thomas Rue to be their Collector, and gave him a Sallary of 30.… |
| Forms | celeries | salaries |
| Pronunciation | /ˈsɛləɹi/ /ˈsɛlɹi/ | /ˈsæləɹi/ /ˈsaləɾe/ /-ɾɪ/ |
| In writing | 2.1 times per million words | 23 times per million words |
Sources: celery and salary in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Every current meaning of celery and salary
celery
- 1
A European herb (Apium graveolens) of the carrot family
- 2
The stalks of this herb eaten as a vegetable
- 3
A yellow-green colour, like that of a celery
salary
- 1
A fixed amount of money paid to a worker, usually calculated on a monthly or annual basis, not hourly, as wages. Implies a degree of professionalism and/or autonomy
Andrew Houſtoun and Adam Muſhet, being Tackſmen of the Excize, did Imploy Thomas Rue to be their Collector, and gave him a Sallary of 30. pound Sterling for a year
- 2
To pay on the basis of a period of a week or longer, especially to convert from another form of compensation
Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.
Which is more common, celery or salary?
celery appears 2.1 times per million words; salary 23 times per million words.
celery 2.1 times per million wordssalary 23 times per million words
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).