Salient
What It Means
Something described as salient is very important or noticeable.
// The assignment was to write down the most salient points made in the article.
// One salient feature of the band’s music is the variety of different genres it incorporates into a singular sound.
Salient in Context
“All actors use their bodies, but [Zoe] Saldaña has long been on another plane. She doesn’t just interpret characters, she moves through them with such salient physicality that her body often has as much to say as the dialogue she speaks.” — Gia Kourlas, The New York Times, 28 Feb. 2025.
Did You Know?
When salient first hopped into English, it described things—animals especially—that move by jumping, springing, or leaping. Small wonder, then, that the word comes from the Latin verb salire, meaning “to leap.” (Polyglots may also recognize the influence of salire on the Spanish verb salir, meaning “to leave,” and the French verb saillir, meaning “to jut out.”) Today, salient is usually used to describe things that “leap out” in a figurative sense, such as the salient features of a painting or the salient points made in an essay or argument.
