# salmon

> English word · Noun · IPA /ˈsæmən/ · frequency rank #7,055

## Definitions
1. One of several species of fish, typically of the Salmoninae subfamily, brownish above with silvery sides and delicate pinkish-orange flesh; they ascend rivers to spawn.
2. A meal or dish made from this fish.
3. A pale pinkish-orange colour, the colour of cooked salmon.
4. The upper bricks in a kiln which receive the least heat.
5. snout (tobacco; from salmon and trout)
6. canned fish, usually mackerel.

## Etymology
From Middle English samoun, samon, saumon, from Anglo-Norman saumon, from Old French saumon, from Latin salmō, salmōn-. Widely displaced native Middle English lax, from Old English leax (whence modern dialectal lax). The unpronounced l was later inserted to make the word appear closer to its Latin root (compare words like debt, indict, receipt for the same spelling Latinizations).
The verb sense “ride a bicycle the wrong way down a one-way street” alludes to salmon swimming upstream against the flow of a river to spawn.

## Easily confused with
- **Simon** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/salmon-vs-simon)
- **salon** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/salmon-vs-salon)
- **Saxon** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/salmon-vs-saxon)
- **Samoa** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/salmon-vs-samoa)
- **salvo** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/salmon-vs-salvo)
- **solon** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/salmon-vs-solon)
- **sermon** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/salmon-vs-sermon)
- **summon** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/salmon-vs-summon)
- **saloon** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/salmon-vs-saloon)
- **Samson** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/salmon-vs-samson)
- **Samoan** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/salmon-vs-samoan)
- **Sauron** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/salmon-vs-sauron)
- **Shimon** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/salmon-vs-shimon)
- **Solomon** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/salmon-vs-solomon)
- **Salmond** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/salmon-vs-salmond)
- **Salomon** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/salmon-vs-salomon)
- **Salma** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/salma-vs-salmon)
- **Salman** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/salman-vs-salmon)
- **Saigon** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/saigon-vs-salmon)

## Common misspellings (9)
`aslmon`, `sallmon`, `salmmon`, `salmno`, `salmonn`, `salomn`, `samlon`, `slamon`, `ssalmon`

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/salmon