Tony Gibbs 
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Salient first popped up in English as a word referring to the act of leaping. It is from the Latin verb salire, which means "to leap." Today, salient is usually used to describe things that "leap out," such as the salient features of a painting or the salient points in an argument.
Examples of salient in a Sentence
Kevin Baker, New York Times Book Review, 5 Nov. 2006
A 2002 study conducted at the University of Illinois by Diener and Seligman found that the most salient characteristics shared by the 10% of students with the highest levels of happiness and the fewest signs of depression were their strong ties to friends and family and commitment to spending time with them.
—Claudia Wallis, Time, 17 Jan. 2005
The difference between the people Liebling chose to write about and today's celebrity culture is the difference between the "profile" and the "portrait." A profile is an outline, a concise rendering of the most salient facts, though the facts may be inessential and even inaccurate in their generality. … A portrait, on the other hand, is a revelation, an exposure.
—Lee Siegel, Harper's, December 2004
Kermeen cites "a book published in 1882" that says of ghosts at the Myrtles: "The lights are never extinguished at the plantation. When the lights are all out, something always happens." Kermeen does not further identify this book (another source says it was published "in 1900"), but the salient point here is that it apparently did not mention the Chloe tale. That suggests it was probably unknown until relatively recently.
—Joe Nickell, Skeptical Inquirer, September/October 2003
Noun
The attempts of the Teutonic armies to envelop and destroy some portion of the Russian forces involved the creation of several dangerous salients in the Russian line, followed by an endeavor to close the neck of each salient by attacks from both sides and so to isolate the armies forming its apex.
—Douglas Wilson Johnson, Topography and Strategy in the War, 1917
Nicole Fallert, USA TODAY, 10 Apr. 2024
The ultimatum was salient given that Tesla’s monstrous valuation is at least partly based on hopes that Musk would eventually move the company beyond cars to make it into a technology juggernaut.
—Marco Quiroz-Gutierrez, Fortune, 22 Mar. 2024
See all Example Sentences for salient 
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'salient.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
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Cite this Entry
“Salient.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/salient. Accessed 19 Apr. 2024.
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salient
adjective
More from Merriam-Webster on salient
Thesaurus: All synonyms and antonyms for salient
Nglish: Translation of salient for Spanish Speakers
Britannica English: Translation of salient for Arabic Speakers
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