Definition of "salience" [sa•li•ence]

• The quality or condition of being salient. (noun)
• A pronounced feature or part; a highlight. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "But these issues will gain salience when the economy recovers and energy prices go back up."
• "If political salience is the question -- more rather than less -- wouldn't it be more fruitful to speak directly about politics through essays, op-eds, and speeches than to distort one's "creative" work by bending it to the political winds?"
• "Further research is required to determine whether the change is simply associated with short-term increases in consumption from a perceived novelty of new pictures on trays, or if the images are generating long-term salience in students' minds."