Synonym Chooser

How does the adjective salutary contrast with its synonyms?

Some common synonyms of salutary are healthful, salubrious, and wholesome. While all these words mean "favorable to the health of mind or body," salutary describes something corrective or beneficially effective, even though it may in itself be unpleasant.

a salutary warning that resulted in increased production

When could healthful be used to replace salutary?

The synonyms healthful and salutary are sometimes interchangeable, but healthful implies a positive contribution to a healthy condition.

a healthful diet

When might salubrious be a better fit than salutary?

While in some cases nearly identical to salutary, salubrious applies chiefly to the helpful effects of climate or air.

cool and salubrious weather

In what contexts can wholesome take the place of salutary?

The words wholesome and salutary can be used in similar contexts, but wholesome applies to what benefits, builds up, or sustains physically, mentally, or spiritually.

wholesome foods
the movie is wholesome family entertainment

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of salutary Deep fakes may indeed have salutary uses in educational settings. Daniel J. Feldman, The Conversation, 17 June 2025 The further cuts that are included are politically motivated handouts that make the tax code more complicated, undoing much of the salutary simplification from the TCJA. The Editors, National Review, 23 May 2025 To some analysts, that difference is a tribute to the flexibility of Britain’s parliamentary government and a salutary distinction between Britain and the United States. Mark Landler, New York Times, 8 Apr. 2025 And yet a more equal world remains a salutary objective. Branko Milanovic, Foreign Affairs, 14 June 2023 See All Example Sentences for salutary
Recent Examples of Synonyms for salutary
Adjective
  • During sleep, heart rate and blood pressure drop too, which is beneficial for the little vessels in your brain.
    Erica Sloan, SELF, 10 Sep. 2025
  • Foliage color can vary between individual trees, which is why planting–and shopping–in fall is beneficial.
    Kim Toscano, Southern Living, 10 Sep. 2025
Adjective
  • Lifestyle habit such as exercise and a healthy diet can help keep inflammation in check.
    Sarah Garone, Health, 9 Sep. 2025
  • Loneliness is the healthy emotion that nudges us to get off the couch and go be with people.
    Dev Patnaik, Forbes.com, 9 Sep. 2025
Adjective
  • In the east, crews continued to build line between Wiseman Springs and Rancheria Creek, engaging the fire directly along its active edge where favorable.
    CA WILDFIRE BOT, Sacbee.com, 6 Sep. 2025
  • Environmental conditions are favorable for development of this system, currently labeled as Invest 91L, and a tropical depression is likely to form over the weekend or early next week as the system moves slowly westward across the central tropical Atlantic.
    Gabe Hauari, USA Today, 5 Sep. 2025
Adjective
  • All of the cats who tested this litter adjusted to it quickly and easily — some even had a little play date in their box, kicking and scratching, which is a good sign!
    Kayla Blanton, PEOPLE, 7 Sep. 2025
  • Leisure’s best new hotels of 2021, Wander the Resort offers 10 luxurious glass-and-timber cabins along the quiet northern shores of West Lake.
    Alexandra Emanuelli, Travel + Leisure, 7 Sep. 2025
Adjective
  • The Tennessean's Student of the Week is all about helpful upperclassmen this week.
    Gabrielle Chenault, Nashville Tennessean, 8 Sep. 2025
  • Granovetter found that a person’s casual or loose connections (weak ties) are more helpful than their strong ties.
    Carmine Gallo, Forbes.com, 7 Sep. 2025
Adjective
  • While the approach is based on science, the atmosphere is far from medicinal.
    Sherrie Nachman, Forbes.com, 7 Sep. 2025
  • In Ryan Coogler’s 2025 blockbuster, Sinners, Wunmi Mosaku plays a woman named Annie, who makes a living by supplying her neighbors in Clarksdale, Mississippi, with homemade medicinal cures.
    Danielle Amir Jackson, The Atlantic, 4 Sep. 2025
Adjective
  • Lubetzky launched Kind in 2004, aiming to create snacks that were both healthful and socially responsible.
    Dave Smith, Fortune, 25 Aug. 2025
  • Now’s the time to enjoy them in a healthful and elegant appetizer.
    Bethany Thayer, Freep.com, 24 Aug. 2025
Adjective
  • At a moment as troubled as this one, to escape from this time into time itself is somehow salubrious.
    Adam Gopnik, New Yorker, 28 Apr. 2025
  • Los Angeles Rams → Chelsea With the respective lures of Los Angeles and salubrious west London, both these clubs have a big market feel.
    Eduardo Tansley, The Athletic, 17 Feb. 2025

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Cite this Entry

“Salutary.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/salutary. Accessed 11 Sep. 2025.

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