Standard Lemma guide

sulfite

noun · 1 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • /ˈsʌlfaɪt/
  • Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • CMU ARPABET: S AH1 L F AY2 T Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

noun

Meaning 1

Any salt of sulfurous acid.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: US

Topics: chemistry, inorganic-chemistry, natural-sciences, physical-sciences

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

History

Etymology

Etymology tree Latin sulpur Latin sulfur Latin sulphur Anglo-Norman sulfrebor. Middle English sulphur English sulfur Proto-Indo-European *-tósder. Ancient Greek -της (-tēs)der. Ancient Greek -ῑ́της (-ī́tēs)der. Latin -ītēsbor. French -iteder. English -ite English sulfite From sulfur + -ite (“suffix used for salts of acids ending in -ous”).

Across languages

Translations

19 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Catalan: sulfit — salt of sulfurous acid
  • Czech: siřičitan — salt of sulfurous acid
  • Czech: sulfit — salt of sulfurous acid
  • Dutch: sulfiet — salt of sulfurous acid
  • Finnish: sulfiitti — salt of sulfurous acid
  • French: sulfite — salt of sulfurous acid
  • Galician: sulfito — salt of sulfurous acid
  • German: Sulfit — salt of sulfurous acid
  • Hungarian: szulfit — salt of sulfurous acid
  • Ido: sulfito — salt of sulfurous acid
  • Irish: suilfít — salt of sulfurous acid
  • Italian: solfito — salt of sulfurous acid
  • Māori: pākati pungatara — salt of sulfurous acid
  • Polish: siarczyn — salt of sulfurous acid
  • Portuguese: sulfito — salt of sulfurous acid
  • Spanish: sulfito — salt of sulfurous acid
  • Swedish: sulfit — salt of sulfurous acid
  • Telugu: సల్ఫైటు (salphaiṭu) — salt of sulfurous acid
  • Turkish: sülfit — salt of sulfurous acid