word salad
noun
1
psychology
: unintelligible, extremely disorganized speech or writing manifested as a symptom of a mental disorder (such as schizophrenia)
Damage to Wernicke's area can result in the loss of semantic associations … . Trying to speak results in garbled, nonsensical juxtapositions that neuroscientists call "word salad".—
Duncan Graham-Rowe
Duncan Graham-Rowe2
: a string of empty, incoherent, unintelligible, or nonsensical words or comments
In the moments when the debate wasn't in circus form it seemed very conventional and very one-sided, with one candidate who could give complete, coherent and informed answers about issues and the other who specialized in word salad.—Robert Schlesinger
Robert Schlesinger… composed an essay that was a word salad of solemn academic jargon.—George Will
George Will
Examples of word salad in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
More recently though, some fans have soured on Romo’s schtick, tiring of his enthusiasm with partner Jim Nantz and occasional word salads.
—Danny Emerman, The Mercury News, 9 Feb. 2024
Asked at a New Hampshire town hall broadcast in May about her refusal to expand the program, Haley responded with a word salad about job-creation programs her state had sponsored, rather than on addressing the healthcare needs of lower-income residents.
—Michael Hiltzik, Los Angeles Times, 26 Jan. 2024
Their purpose is pretty clear: take every side of an issue and amplify it by nonsense, word salad, insults, violent musings, denigrating the media and government, and outright lies, just to stir things up and pit us against one another.
—Will Oremus, Washington Post, 20 Jan. 2024
That word salad gets us nowhere, skating glibly over the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe vs. Wade, as played out in states where stringent antiabortion statutes have had devastating consequences for the health of pregnant women and their access to medical care.
—Michael Hiltzik, Los Angeles Times, 20 July 2023
Vice President Kamala Harris' attempt to explain artificial intelligence (AI) to a group of labor and civil rights leaders on Wednesday instead became her latest word salad gaffe, something she's become increasingly known for during her time in the role.
—Brandon Gillespie, Fox News, 12 July 2023
That tasty word salad came in conjunction with the Orioles declining to exercise a five-year option on their Camden Yards lease.
—Gabe Lacques, USA TODAY, 16 June 2023
So far, the right has expressed its complaints about ESG via a word salad whose components don’t share much of a relationship either to reality or one another.
—Kate Aronoff, The New Republic, 11 May 2023
In recent months, a number of Ponzi schemes and other scams built around NFT properties involved the creation of video games and virtual worlds, and many people remain eager to shoehorn NFTs into online gaming with word salad promises of value for ordinary gamers.
—Wired, 8 July 2022
Danny Emerman, The Mercury News, 9 Feb. 2024
Asked at a New Hampshire town hall broadcast in May about her refusal to expand the program, Haley responded with a word salad about job-creation programs her state had sponsored, rather than on addressing the healthcare needs of lower-income residents.
—Michael Hiltzik, Los Angeles Times, 26 Jan. 2024
Their purpose is pretty clear: take every side of an issue and amplify it by nonsense, word salad, insults, violent musings, denigrating the media and government, and outright lies, just to stir things up and pit us against one another.
—Will Oremus, Washington Post, 20 Jan. 2024
That word salad gets us nowhere, skating glibly over the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe vs. Wade, as played out in states where stringent antiabortion statutes have had devastating consequences for the health of pregnant women and their access to medical care.
—Michael Hiltzik, Los Angeles Times, 20 July 2023
Vice President Kamala Harris' attempt to explain artificial intelligence (AI) to a group of labor and civil rights leaders on Wednesday instead became her latest word salad gaffe, something she's become increasingly known for during her time in the role.
—Brandon Gillespie, Fox News, 12 July 2023
That tasty word salad came in conjunction with the Orioles declining to exercise a five-year option on their Camden Yards lease.
—Gabe Lacques, USA TODAY, 16 June 2023
So far, the right has expressed its complaints about ESG via a word salad whose components don’t share much of a relationship either to reality or one another.
—Kate Aronoff, The New Republic, 11 May 2023
In recent months, a number of Ponzi schemes and other scams built around NFT properties involved the creation of video games and virtual worlds, and many people remain eager to shoehorn NFTs into online gaming with word salad promises of value for ordinary gamers.
—Wired, 8 July 2022
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'word salad.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Word History
First Known Use
1904, in the meaning defined at sense 1
Dictionary Entries Near word salad
Cite this Entry
“Word salad.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/word%20salad. Accessed 16 Apr. 2024.
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Medical Definition
word salad
noun
word sal·ad
-ˌsal-əd 
: a jumble of extremely incoherent speech as sometimes observed in schizophrenia
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