Salt vs. Sugar — What's the Difference?

Salt is a mineral composed primarily of sodium chloride (NaCl), a chemical compound belonging to the larger class of salts; salt in the form of a natural crystalline mineral is known as rock salt or halite. Salt is present in vast quantities in seawater.

Sugar is the generic name for sweet-tasting, soluble carbohydrates, many of which are used in food. Table sugar, granulated sugar, or regular sugar, refers to sucrose, a disaccharide composed of glucose and fructose.

A usually whitish crystalline solid, chiefly sodium chloride, used extensively in ground or granulated form as a food seasoning and preservative. Also called common salt, table salt.

A sweet crystalline or powdered substance, white when pure, consisting of sucrose obtained mainly from sugarcane and sugar beets and used in many foods, drinks, and medicines to improve their taste. Also called table sugar.

An ionic chemical compound formed by replacing all or part of the hydrogen ions of an acid with metal ions or other cations.

Any of a class of water-soluble crystalline carbohydrates, including sucrose and lactose, having a characteristically sweet taste and classified as monosaccharides, disaccharides, and trisaccharides.

Salts Any of various mineral salts used as laxatives or cathartics.

A unit, such as a lump or cube, in which sugar is dispensed or taken.

Salts Smelling salts.

(Slang) Sweetheart. Used as a term of endearment.

Often salts Epsom salts.

To coat, cover, or sweeten with sugar.

An element that gives flavor or zest.

To make less distasteful or more appealing.

Sharp lively wit.

To form sugar.

(Informal) A sailor, especially when old or experienced.

To form granules; granulate.

A saltcellar.

To make sugar or syrup from sugar maple sap. Often used with off.

Containing or filled with salt

(uncountable) Sucrose in the form of small crystals, obtained from sugar cane or sugar beet and used to sweeten food and drink.

Having a salty taste or smell

(countable) A specific variety of sugar.

Preserved in salt or a salt solution

Any of various small carbohydrates that are used by organisms to store energy.

Flooded with seawater.

(countable) A small serving of this substance (typically about one teaspoon), used to sweeten a drink.

Found in or near such a flooded area

(countable) A term of endearment.

To add, treat, season, or sprinkle with salt.

A kiss.

To cure or preserve by treating with salt or a salt solution.

Effeminacy in a male, often implying homosexuality.

To provide salt for (deer or cattle).

Diabetes.

To add zest or liveliness to

(dated) Anything resembling sugar in taste or appearance, especially in chemistry.

To give an appearance of value to by fraudulent means, especially to place valuable minerals in (a mine) for the purpose of deceiving.

Compliment or flattery used to disguise or render acceptable something obnoxious; honeyed or soothing words.

A common substance, chemically consisting mainly of sodium chloride (NaCl), used extensively as a condiment and preservative.

Heroin.

(chemistry) One of the compounds formed from the reaction of an acid with a base, where a positive ion replaces a hydrogen of the acid.

Money.

(uncommon) A salt marsh, a saline marsh at the shore of a sea.

(programming) syntactic sugar.

(slang) A sailor also old salt.

(transitive) To add sugar to; to sweeten with sugar.

(cryptography) Randomly chosen bytes added to a plaintext message prior to encrypting or hashing it, in order to render brute-force decryption more difficult.

(transitive) To make (something unpleasant) seem less so.

A person who seeks employment at a company in order to (once employed by it) help unionize it.

In making maple sugar, to complete the process of boiling down the syrup till it is thick enough to crystallize; to approach or reach the state of granulation; with the preposition off.

(obsolete) Flavour; taste; seasoning.

(entomology) To apply sugar to trees or plants in order to catch moths.

(obsolete) Piquancy; wit; sense.

To rewrite (source code) using syntactic sugar.

(obsolete) A dish for salt at table; a salt cellar.

(transitive) To compliment (a person).

Epsom salts or other salt used as a medicine.

To remove hair using a paste of sugar, water, and lemon juice.

(figurative) Skepticism and common sense.

(minced oath) Used in place of shit!

(Internet slang) Tears; indignation; outrage; arguing.

A sweet white (or brownish yellow) crystalline substance, of a sandy or granular consistency, obtained by crystallizing the evaporated juice of certain plants, as the sugar cane, sorghum, beet root, sugar maple, etc. It is used for seasoning and preserving many kinds of food and drink. Ordinary sugar is essentially sucrose. See the Note below.

The money demanded by Eton schoolboys during the montem.

By extension, anything resembling sugar in taste or appearance; as, sugar of lead (lead acetate), a poisonous white crystalline substance having a sweet taste.

One who joins a workplace for the purpose of unionizing it.

Compliment or flattery used to disguise or render acceptable something obnoxious; honeyed or soothing words.

A bounding; a leaping; a prance.

In making maple sugar, to complete the process of boiling down the sirup till it is thick enough to crystallize; to approach or reach the state of granulation; - with the preposition off.

Salty; salted.

To impregnate, season, cover, or sprinkle with sugar; to mix sugar with.

Saline.

To cover with soft words; to disguise by flattery; to compliment; to sweeten; as, to sugar reproof.

Related to salt deposits, excavation, processing or use.

A white crystalline carbohydrate used as a sweetener and preservative

Bitter; sharp; pungent.

An essential structural component of living cells and source of energy for animals; includes simple sugars with small molecules as well as macromolecular substances; are classified according to the number of monosaccharide groups they contain

Salacious; lecherous; lustful; (of animals) in heat.

Informal terms for money

Costly; expensive.

Sweeten with sugar;

(transitive) To add salt to.

(intransitive) To deposit salt as a saline solution.

To fill with salt between the timbers and planks for the preservation of the timber.

To insert or inject something into an object to give it properties it would not naturally have.

(mining) To blast metal into as a portion of a mine in order to cause to appear to be a productive seam.

(archaeology) To add bogus evidence to an archaeological site.

(transitive) To add certain chemical elements to (a nuclear weapon) so that it generates more radiation.

(transitive) To sprinkle throughout.

(cryptography) To add filler bytes before encrypting, in order to make brute-force decryption more resource-intensive.

To render a thing useless.

To sow with salt (of land), symbolizing a curse on its re-inhabitation.

(wiki) To lock a page title so it cannot be created.

The chloride of sodium, a substance used for seasoning food, for the preservation of meat, etc. It is found native in the earth, and is also produced, by evaporation and crystallization, from sea water and other water impregnated with saline particles.

Hence, flavor; taste; savor; smack; seasoning.

Hence, also, piquancy; wit; sense; as, Attic salt.

A dish for salt at table; a saltcellar.

A sailor; - usually qualified by old.

The neutral compound formed by the union of an acid and a base; thus, sulphuric acid and iron form the salt sulphate of iron or green vitriol.

Fig.: That which preserves from corruption or error; that which purifies; a corrective; an antiseptic; also, an allowance or deduction; as, his statements must be taken with a grain of salt.

Any mineral salt used as an aperient or cathartic, especially Epsom salts, Rochelle salt, or Glauber's salt.

Marshes flooded by the tide.

The act of leaping or jumping; a leap.

Of or relating to salt; abounding in, or containing, salt; prepared or preserved with, or tasting of, salt; salted; as, salt beef; salt water.

Overflowed with, or growing in, salt water; as, a salt marsh; salt grass.

Fig.: Bitter; sharp; pungent.

Fig.: Salacious; lecherous; lustful.

To sprinkle, impregnate, or season with salt; to preserve with salt or in brine; to supply with salt; as, to salt fish, beef, or pork; to salt cattle.

To fill with salt between the timbers and planks, as a ship, for the preservation of the timber.

To deposit salt as a saline solution; as, the brine begins to salt.

A compound formed by replacing hydrogen in an acid by a metal (or a radical that acts like a metal)

White crystalline form of especially sodium chloride used to season and preserve food

Negotiations between the United States and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics opened in 1969 in Helsinki designed to limit both countries' stock of nuclear weapons

The taste experience when salt is taken into the mouth

Add salt to

Sprinkle as if with salt;

Add zest or liveliness to;

Preserve with salt;

Containing or filled with salt;

Of speech that is painful or bitter;

One of the four basic taste sensations; like the taste of sea water