Making a saline water solution by dissolving table salt (NaCl) in water. The salt is the solute and the water the solvent. In chemistry, a solution is a homogeneous mixture composed of two or more substances. In such a mixture, a solute is a substance dissolved in another substance, known as a solvent. The solution more or less takes on the characteristics of the solvent including its phase, and the solvent is commonly the major fraction of the mixture. The concentration of a solute in a solution is a measure of how much of that solute is dissolved in the solvent, with regard to how much solvent is present like salt.