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Sapient vs Salient - What's the difference?

sapient | salient |

As adjectives the difference between sapient and salient

is that sapient is possessing wisdom and discernment; wise, learned while salient is worthy of note; pertinent or relevant.

As nouns the difference between sapient and salient

is that sapient is an intelligent, self-aware being while salient is an outwardly projecting part of a fortification, trench system, or line of defense.

sapient

English

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • Possessing wisdom and discernment; wise, learned.
  • * 2010 , (Christopher Hitchens), Hitch-22 , Atlantic 2011, p. 217:
    • In Europe I had been told by sapient academics that there wasn't really any class system in the United States: well, you couldn't prove that by the conditions in California's agribusinesses, or indeed its urban factories.
  • (chiefly, science fiction) Possessing intelligence and self-awareness.
  • * {{quote-magazine
    • , year = 1962 , date = January , first = Henry Beam , last = Piper , authorlink = H. Beam Piper , title = Naudsonce , magazine = Analog Science Fact and Science Fiction , volume = 68 , issue = 5 , page = 9 , passage = It was inhabited by a sapient humanoid race, and some of them were civilized enough to put it in Class V, and Colonial Office doctrine on Class V planets was rigid. }}

    Synonyms

    * (possessing wisdom) wise, sagacious * (possessing self-awareness) intelligent, self-aware, sentient

    Related terms

    * sapiently * Homo sapiens

    References

    * *

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (chiefly, science fiction) An intelligent, self-aware being.
  • * {{quote-book
    • , year = 1960 , first = Philip José , last = Farmer , authorlink = Philip José Farmer , title = A Woman a Day , page = 30 , passage = It seemed to him a possibility that the Cold War Corps of March might have contacted hitherto unknown sapients on some just discovered interstellar planet. }}

    Synonyms

    * See

    References

    * *

    Anagrams

    * ----

    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

    * ----