Adjective

(en adjective)

Outstanding in importance, of great consequence.

* 1725 , , Everybody's Business is Nobody's Business :

The reason why I did not publish this book till the end of the last sessions of parliament was, because I did not care to interfere with more momentous affairs.

* 1831 , , Homeward Bound , ch. 31:

"It has been a momentous month, and I hope we shall all retain healthful recollections of it as long as we live."

* 1902 , , The End of the Tether , ch. 3:

What to the other parties was merely the sale of a ship was to him a momentous event involving a radically new view of existence.

* 2007 July 1, , " Inferior Design," New York Times (retrieved 19 Nov 2013):

Natural selection is arguably the most momentous idea ever to occur to a human mind, because it — alone as far as we know — explains the elegant illusion of design that pervades the living kingdoms and explains, in passing, us.

Adjective

(en adjective)

Obvious or easy to notice.

* {{quote-book, year=1928, author=Lawrence R. Bourne

, title=Well Tackled! , chapter=7 citation , passage=“No, don't,” replied the superintendent; “in fact, I'd rather you made yourself conspicuous elsewhere. Go down to the landing stage and cross to New Brighton or Wallasey—doesn't matter which—and come back. No doubt you will be seen, and reported to have gone across.”}}

He was conspicuous by his absence.

Noticeable or attracting attention, especially if unattractive.

* 1969 , Saul Bellow, Mr Sammler's Planet , Penguin Books Ltd, page 6:

For his height he had a small face. The combination made him conspicuous .

He had a conspicuous lump on his forehead.