salient
sa·lient/ˈseɪ.li.ənt/adjective, noun
salient is spelled S-A-L-I-E-N-T: 7 letters and 2 syllables (sa·lient). It appears 1.3 times per million words in written English, the 24,745th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As an adjective, salient means “Worthy of note; pertinent or relevant” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).
How many letters and syllables are in salient?
| Letters | 7: S-A-L-I-E-N-T |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2: sa·lient |
| In writing | 1.3 times per million words; the 24,745th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Same letters |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How common is salient?
Salient appears 1.3 times per million words in written English, the 24,745th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce salient?
- US /ˈseɪ.li.ənt/
- US /ˈseɪ.ljənt/
- Australia /ˈsæɪ.li.ənt/
Salient has 2 syllables, split sa·lient in writing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-salient.ogg, En-au-salient.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with salient?
No other word on PlainSpell ends in the same sounds as salient (/eɪliənt/).
Spelled with the same letters in another order: elastin, saltine, staniel.
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of salient
- more salient comparative
- most salient superlative
- salients plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does salient mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
adjective
- 1
Worthy of note; pertinent or relevant.
The article is not exhaustive, but it covers the salient points pretty well.
- 2
Prominent; conspicuous.
- 3
Depicted in a leaping posture.
a lion salient
- 4
Projecting outwards, pointing outwards.
a salient angle
- 5
obsoleteMoving by leaps or springs; jumping.
- 6
obsoleteShooting or springing out; projecting.
- 7
Denoting any angle less than two right angles.
noun
- 1
An outwardly projecting part of a fortification, trench system, or line of defense.
- 2
A protrusion of the administrative borders of a geopolitical entity, such as a subnational entity or a sovereign state into another geopolitical entity, generally of the same administrative level.
- 3
An overall-convex, protruding section of a sinuous fold and thrust belt, thrust sheet, or a single thrust fault, caused by one or more of: deformation (folding and faulting) of strata and geologic structures during orogenesis, differences in the angle of critical taper during orogenesis, or differing erosional level of the present geomorphological surface.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Salient in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | pertinent , saillant , saillie |
| German | hervorstechend, wesentlich , Frontvorsprung, Frontbogen, Frontausbuchtung , Zipfel |
| Spanish | sobresaliente , empinado, saltante |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does salient come from?
The heraldic sense “leaping” and the sense “projecting outward” are borrowed from Latin salientem, the accusative form of saliēns (“springing, leaping”) (whence -ent), present participle of saliō (“leap, spring”, verb). The senses “prominent” and “pertinent” are relatively recent, and derive from the phrase salient point, which is a calque of the Latin punctum saliēns, a translation of Aristotle's term for the embryonal heart visible in (opened) eggs, which he thought seemed to move already. Compare also the German calque der springende Punkt.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).