salient

adj

1. Worthy of note; pertinent or relevant.

   “The article is not exhaustive, but it covers the salient points pretty well.”

   “With nearer approach these fragmentary sounds became pieced together, and were found to be the salient points of the tune called "Nancy's Fancy."”

   “The last salient point in which the systems of these creatures differed from ours was in what one might have thought a very trivial particular.”

2. Prominent; conspicuous.

   “Warning me that many of the street signs were down, the youth drew for my benefit a rough but ample and painstaking sketch map of the town's salient features.”

   “He [Grenville] had neither salient traits, nor general comprehensiveness of mind.”

   “Professionally published dictionaries do not seem to have extended coverage beyond the most frequent and salient items.”

   “Russian forces likely accumulated a large amount of equipment for such mechanized assaults, but significant medium- to long-term constraints on Russian armored vehicle stocks will become more salient as losses grow and may force the Russian military command to rethink the benefit of continuing such intensified mechanized activity in Ukraine.”

3. (usually)Depicted in a leaping posture.

   “a lion salient”

4. (often)Projecting outwards, pointing outwards.

   “a salient angle”

5. (obsolete)Moving by leaps or springs; jumping.

   “frogs and salient animals”

6. (obsolete)Shooting or springing out; projecting.

   “He had in himſelf a ſalient, living ſpring of generous and manly action.”

7. Denoting any angle less than two right angles.

noun

1. An outwardly projecting part of a fortification, trench system, or line of defense.

   “On April 26 the First Division had gone into the line in the Montdidier salient on the Picardy battlefront.”

   “The battlefronts were often no more than a few hundred yards wide, and the salients never more than a few miles deep.”

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.

   “Orogenic arcs are made up by more advanced segments (salients) separated by less advanced zones (recesses) (Miser, 1932). Within salients, the critical taper is lower, the distance among thrust ramps is larger, and there may be more ramps departing from the basal décollement layer with respect to the recess areas.”