Salient

 WORD OF THE DAY

salient / adjective / SAIL-yunt

Definition
1a: moving by leaps or springs
1b: jumping
2: jetting upward
3a: projecting beyond a line, surface, or level
3b: standing out conspicuously
3c: prominent
3d: of notable significance
4a: something (such as a promontory) that projects outward or upward from its surroundings
4b: an outwardly projecting part of a fortification, trench system, or line of defense

Examples
"Research published last month in MIT's Sloan Management Review offers some insight. The salient point it makes is that a 'toxic work culture' was more than 10 times as predictive of attrition than insufficient compensation."
— Ginia Bellafante, The New York Times, 6 Feb. 2022

That's true now more than ever in the case of Vladimir Putin and certainly more salient than ever, as Europe is now facing a horrific war for the first time in decades.
— CBS News, 9 Mar. 2022

Did You Know?
Salient first popped up in English in the 16th century as a term of heraldry meaning "rampant but leaning forward as if leaping."
By the mid-17th century, it had leaped into more general use in the senses of "moving by leaps or springs" or "spouting forth."
Those senses aren't too much of a jump from the word's parent, the Latin verb salire, which means "to leap."
Salire also occurs in the etymologies of some other English words, including somersault and sally, as well as Salientia, the name for an order of amphibians that includes frogs, toads, and other notable jumpers.
Today, salient is usually used to describe things that are physically prominent (such as a salient nose) or that stand out figuratively (such as the salient features of a painting or the salient points in an argument).