Make Your Point > Archived Issues > SALIENT

Send Make Your Point issues straight to your inbox.

pronounce SALIENT: Say it either "SAIL yunt" or, my preference, "SAY lee yunt." To hear it, click here. connect this word to others: I've mentioned before that words like assail, assault, salmon (those leaping fish), resilience (that ability to leap back), and s____s___ts (those leaping acrobatic flips) are like cousins: they all trace to the Latin salire, "to leap." So does the word we're checking out today, salient. It was a pet word for my twelfth-grade English teacher. I still hear it in his voice. "Who can identify the salient images in this poem?" "Well done on your essays! You made very salient points about the novel!" Apparently his love of the word is still salient in my memory: it sticks out. Or more aptly, it leaps out. (To reveal any word with blanks, give it a click.) definition: "Salient" comes from a Latin word for "a leaping." In English, you might sometimes see "salient" meaning "leaping" quite literally, as in "a salient spring of water" or "Frogs are salient creatures." Most of the time, something salient seems to leap out because it's more important, more interesting, more unusual, or just easier to notice than other things. grammatical bits: Part of speech: Adjective: "a salient point," "the most salient features." Other forms:  Saliently, salience. how to use it: Pick the common word "salient" when you need a sophisticated way to say that some particular thing, or some particular piece or part, is easy to notice--or hard to ignore. If it seems to leap into view, or leap into your mind, you might call it salient. The kinds of things we often call salient include    issues and problems;    similarities and differences;    advantages and disadvantages;        aspects, qualities, and features;     dreams, memories, and experiences;    and facts, points, details, and information. examples: "Dreaming helps us consolidate new memories: we replay salient experiences from the day, reinforcing new pathways in our brains."    — Alice Robb, as interviewed by Kate Kellaway, The Guardian,14 April 2019 "Knowing which shirt you wore six weeks ago is rarely helpful... 'The brain's principle is to forget everything except those instances that were highly salient.'"    — Angela Chen, quoting Blake Richards, The Verge, 21 July 2017 has this page helped you understand "salient"? Awesome, I'm glad it helped! Thanks for letting me know! If you have any questions about this word, please message me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com. study it: Explain the meaning of "salient" without saying "prominent" or "standout." try it out: When our daughter was three, we took her to the zoo. It was a fantastic day. She chattered away with us about the animals, and we chattered right back. Now, four years later, she still says, "Remember when we saw the penguins and Daddy said, 'Look, they're going back into their little house'?" For whatever reason--it's mysterious to me--that particular moment is salient in her memory. Talk about a salient memory of yours. Do you know why it's salient, or is it a mystery? When does it leap to mind? If you like, use this space to write. (To save your work, copy and paste it into an email or a document.) before you review, play: Try to spend 20 seconds or more on the game below. Don’t skip straight to the review—first, let your working memory empty out. Our game for April is "Netflix and Anagram." Check out the anagrammed title of a series or movie you can watch on Netflix, along with a descriptive sentence or two about it from Google. See if you can come up with the real title. To see the answer, scroll all the way down. Here's an example. IF CRUEL: "After abandoning his throne and retiring to Los Angeles, he indulges in his favorite things (women, wine and song) -- until a murder takes place outside of his upscale nightclub." The answer is LUCIFER. Try this one today: CHOW RENT: "The series begins with an inside look at the early reign of the queen, who ascended the throne at age 25." review this word: 1. Something that is not at all SALIENT will A. crumble into pieces at the slightest touch. B. fade into the background, or fade from memory. C. possibly spark for a moment, but soon fizzle out. 2. Here's a quote often attributed to Maya Angelou (probably inaccurately): "I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel." In other words, what's salient to us is _____. A. other people's words and actions B. our own emotional responses C. the contrast between the experience and the memory of it Answers to review questions: 1. B 2. B Answer to the game question: THE CROWN. a final word: I hope you're enjoying Make Your Point. It's made with love. I'm Liesl Johnson, a reading and writing tutor on a mission to explore, illuminate, and celebrate words. From my blog:    36 ways to study words.    Why we forget words, & how to remember them.    How to use sophisticated words without being awkward. To be a sponsor and include your ad in an issue, please contact me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com. Disclaimer: When I write definitions, I use plain language and stick to the words' common, useful applications. If you're interested in authoritative and multiple definitions of words, I encourage you to check a dictionary. Also, because I'm American, I stick to American English when I share words' meanings, usage, and pronunciations; these elements sometimes vary across world Englishes.