saliva

CEFRB2

/səˈlaɪvə/

noun

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    noun

    The watery liquid in your mouth that helps digest food.

  2. 02

    noun

    Extra detail

    to salivate

Examples

  • My mouth forms a lot of saliva.

  • I hate the taste of my saliva after eating chocolate.

At a glance

Sits at B2 on the CEFR scale

Senses
3
Parts of speech
1
Synonyms
4

Deep Dive

noun

Extra meaning

  1. A clear, slightly alkaline liquid secreted into the mouth by the salivary glands and mucous glands, consisting of water, mucin, protein, and enzymes. It moistens the mouth, lubricates ingested food, and begins the breakdown of starches.

Synonyms

Quick test

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Question 1 · Quick check

Your mouth produces blank to help break down food when you chew.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Origin

noun

A learned borrowing from Latin salīva (“spittle”), replacing or merging with Middle English salive, salve (“saliva”), from the same Latin source. Further origin uncertain. Perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *salw-, *sal- (“dirt, dirty”), cognate with Old English salu (“dark, dusky”). More at sallow. Displaced Middle English slaver, slavere ("saliva"; whence Modern English slaver); and Middle English spyttle, spetel, spatel, spotel ("saliva"; whence Modern English spittle, spettle, spattle).