Etymology
Origin of salience
Explanation
Salience means importance. Your birthday will always be a date that jumps out at you with a lot of salience or importance. Salience comes from the Latin salire, meaning "to leap." Something with salience leaps out at you because it is unique or special in some way. This could be an issue — like health care reform, or a day — like 9/11, or even something someone said — like the State of the Union address. If it jumps out at you as remarkable or special, it's characterized by a quality of salience.
Vocabulary lists containing salience
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Economists have found that round-number prices for retail items have salience with consumers.
From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 31, 2026
After the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in January, such threats likely have more salience now.
From Salon • Feb. 24, 2026
The salience of both news organizations is waning.
From Barron's • Dec. 22, 2025
It gave the issue of accidental releases from prison a salience and prominence it hadn't had until then.
From BBC • Nov. 5, 2025
His first sight too, it seemed: since he had lived through twelve Italian summers without sense of the sun-steeped quality of atmosphere that, even in shade, gives each object a golden salience.
From The Valley of Decision by Wharton, Edith
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
