What's the difference between
and
Enter two words to compare and contrast their definitions, origins, and synonyms to better understand how those words are related.

Salient vs Momentous - What's the difference?

salient | momentous |

As adjectives the difference between salient and momentous

is that salient is worthy of note; pertinent or relevant while momentous is outstanding in importance, of great consequence.

As a noun salient

is (military) an outwardly projecting part of a fortification, trench system, or line of defense.

salient

English

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • Worthy of note; pertinent or relevant.
    • The article is not exhaustive, but it covers the salient points pretty well.
  • Prominent; conspicuous.
  • * Bancroft
    • He [Grenville] had neither salient traits, nor general comprehensiveness of mind.
  • (heraldry, usually of a quadruped) Depicted in a leaping posture.
    • a lion salient
  • Projecting outwards, pointing outwards.
    • a salient angle
  • (obsolete) Moving by leaps or springs; jumping.
  • * Sir Thomas Browne
    • frogs and salient animals
  • (obsolete) Shooting out up; springing; projecting.
  • * Burke
    • He had in himself a salient , living spring of generous and manly action.

    Quotations

    {{timeline, 1800s=1878 1898, 1900s=1936}} * 1878 , , Book 2, chapter 5: *: With nearer approach these fragmentary sounds became pieced together, and were found to be the salient points of the tune called "Nancy's Fancy." * 1898 , Book2, chapter 2: *: 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. * 1936 , : *: 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.

    Antonyms

    * (prominent) obscure, trivial

    Derived terms

    * salient point

    Related terms

    * salience * saliency

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (military) an outwardly projecting part of a fortification, trench system, or line of defense

    • Derived terms

    * salient pole

    Anagrams

    * ----

    momentous

    English

    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.

    Derived terms

    * momentously * momentousness