salve
/sæ(l)v/noun, verb, interjection
salve is spelled S-A-L-V-E: 5 letters and one syllable. It appears about once in every 2 million words in written English, the 36,565th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, salve means “An ointment, cream, or balm with soothing, healing, or calming effects” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of salve is salves.
How many letters and syllables are in salve?
| Letters | 5: S-A-L-V-E |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | about once in every 2 million words; the 36,565th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Rhymes with | |
| Same letters |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How common is salve?
Salve appears about once in every 2 million words in written English, the 36,565th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce salve?
- UK /sɑːv/
- UK /sælv/
- US /sæ(l)v/
Salve has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-salve.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with salve?
4 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as salve from its last stressed vowel (/æv/):
Spelled with the same letters in another order: slave, selva.
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of salve
- salves plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- salving participle, present
- salved participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does salve mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
An ointment, cream, or balm with soothing, healing, or calming effects.
- 2
Any remedy or action that soothes or heals.
Your forgiveness was a salve to my conscience and a balm to my wounded ego.
verb
- 1
To calm or assuage.
- 2
To heal by applications or medicaments; to apply salve to; to anoint.
- 3
To heal; to remedy; to cure; to make good.
- 4
datedTo salvage.
- 5
To say “salve” to; to greet; to salute.
- 6
obsoleteTo save (the appearances or the phenomena); to explain (a celestial phenomenon); to account for (the apparent motions of the celestial bodies).
- 7
obsoleteTo resolve (a difficulty); to refute (an objection); to harmonize (an apparent contradiction).
- 8
obsoleteTo explain away; to mitigate; to excuse.
interjection
- 1
Hail; a greeting.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Salve in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense ointment, cream or balm:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | onguent, pommade, baume |
| German | Salbe, Balsam |
| Portuguese | pomada |
| Spanish | ungüento, pomada, bálsamo |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does salve come from?
From Middle English salve, from Old English sealf, from Proto-West Germanic *salbu, from Proto-Germanic *salbō, from Proto-Indo-European *solp-éh₂, from *selp- (“salve, ointment”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).