Salience is how much something stands out — how easy it is to notice, or how important it feels next to everything else. If one fact jumps out of a long story, that fact has salience. Teachers, scientists, and news writers use the word; it is not a kitchen-table word. You will meet it when people talk about what the mind notices, which words catch the ear, or which issues get attention. Though actually, some speakers say “the salience of X” when they only mean “X matters.” The tidy picture is “what jumps out”; “what matters” is close, but not always the same thing. The adjective is salient.