SALIENT

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does salient mean? 

• SALIENT (noun)
  The noun SALIENT has 1 sense:

1. (military) the part of the line of battle that projects closest to the enemy

  Familiarity information: SALIENT used as a noun is very rare.

• SALIENT (adjective)
  The adjective SALIENT has 3 senses:

1. having a quality that thrusts itself into attention

2. (of angles) pointing outward at an angle of less than 180 degrees

3. represented as leaping (rampant but leaning forward)

  Familiarity information: SALIENT used as an adjective is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• SALIENT (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

(military) the part of the line of battle that projects closest to the enemy

Classified under:

Nouns denoting spatial position

Hypernyms ("salient" is a kind of...):

projection (any solid convex shape that juts out from something)

Domain category:

armed forces; armed services; military; military machine; war machine (the military forces of a nation)

Holonyms ("salient" is a part of...):

line of battle (a line formed by troops or ships prepared to deliver or receive an attack)

• SALIENT (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Having a quality that thrusts itself into attention

Synonyms:

outstanding; prominent; salient; spectacular; striking

Context example:

a striking resemblance between parent and child

Similar:

conspicuous (obvious to the eye or mind)

Derivation:

salience; saliency (the state of being salient)

Sense 2

Meaning:

(of angles) pointing outward at an angle of less than 180 degrees

Antonym:

re-entrant ((of angles) pointing inward)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Represented as leaping (rampant but leaning forward)

Similar:

inclined (at an angle to the horizontal or vertical position)

Domain category:

heraldry (the study and classification of armorial bearings and the tracing of genealogies)

 Context examples 

This belt was the most salient thing about him.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

A text that abstracts the salient information from the document summary description.

(Document Summary Description Synopsis, NCI Thesaurus)

It seemed to me that we were simply going over and over the same ground again; and so I took note of some salient point, and found that this was so.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

He looked over the remainder of the team with a speculative eye that summed up instantly the salient traits of each animal.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

In fact, this oiliness, or greasiness, as I was later to learn, was probably the most salient expression of his personality.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

Through projections to various brain regions including relay nuclei of the autonomic nervous system, hypothalamic regions and the central nucleus of the amygdala, the BNST controls endocrine and autonomic reactions in response to emotionally-salient stimuli, along with behavioral expression of anxiety and fear, Science Daily reported.

(The Secret Connection between Anxiety, Sleep, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

There are people who seem to have no notion of sketching a character, or observing and describing salient points, either in persons or things: the good lady evidently belonged to this class; my queries puzzled, but did not draw her out.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

The salient thing of this other world seemed fear.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

Encountering predators, adapting to a novel environment or expecting a reward ― these stressful or emotionally-salient situations require animals to shift their behavior to a vigilant state, altering their physiological conditions through modulation of autonomic and endocrine functions.

(The Secret Connection between Anxiety, Sleep, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)