salvas

Salvas is the plural form of salvo in Romance-language usage and appears in English chiefly when quoting non-English sources. In standard English, the plural of salvo is salvos. A salvo designates a single discharge of weapons from one or more guns in a coordinated act, such as a naval broadside, an artillery battery, or a coordinated rocket or missile launch. Salvos may be fired for combat purposes—to saturate a target—as a ceremonial gun salute, or as a signal in operations. The term is of Italian origin, from the word salvo meaning a shot or discharge, and entered English through naval jargon in the early modern period.

In practice, salvas may refer to multiple discharges described in non-English texts or in translated works. The distinction between a salvo and a volley is nuanced: a salvo is typically a single, synchronized discharge, whereas a volley can describe a rapid succession of shots from multiple weapons. The Spanish plural salvas is used in Spanish-language contexts to denote such discharges or volleys.

Related terms include salvo, gun salute, and volley.