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PROMINENCE
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Relative importance
Classified under:
Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects
Hypernyms ("prominence" is a kind of...):
importance (the quality of being important and worthy of note)
Derivation:
prominent (conspicuous in position or importance)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Something that bulges out or is protuberant or projects from its surroundings
Example:
the bony excrescence between its horns
Synonyms:
bulge; bump; excrescence; extrusion; gibbosity; gibbousness; hump; jut; prominence; protrusion; protuberance; swelling
Classified under:
Nouns denoting two and three dimensional shapes
Hypernyms ("prominence" is a kind of...):
projection (any solid convex shape that juts out from something)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "prominence"):
frontal eminence (either prominence of the frontal bone above each orbit)
occipital protuberance (prominence on the outer surface of the occipital bone)
belly (a part that bulges deeply)
caput (a headlike protuberance on an organ or structure)
mogul (a bump on a ski slope)
nub; nubble (a small lump or protuberance)
snag (a sharp protuberance)
wart (any small rounded protuberance (as on certain plants or animals))
Sense 3
Meaning:
The state of being prominent: widely known or eminent
Classified under:
Nouns denoting stable states of affairs
Hypernyms ("prominence" is a kind of...):
standing (social or financial or professional status or reputation)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "prominence"):
glare; limelight; public eye; spotlight (a focus of public attention)
salience; saliency; strikingness (the state of being salient)
Antonym:
obscurity (an obscure and unimportant standing; not well known)
Derivation:
prominent (conspicuous in position or importance)
Context examples:
A projection or prominence opposite the tragus that is found on the lower exterior portion of the ear.
(Antitragus, NCI Thesaurus)
The bony prominence of the lower part of the ischium.
(Ischial Tuberosity, NCI Thesaurus)
Lateral displacement of the great toe, producing deformity of the first metatarsophalangeal joint with callous, bursa, or bunion formation over the bony prominence.
(Hallux Valgus, NLM, Medical Subject Headings)
No, young lady, I am not a general philanthropist; but I bear a conscience; and he pointed to the prominences which are said to indicate that faculty, and which, fortunately for him, were sufficiently conspicuous; giving, indeed, a marked breadth to the upper part of his head: and, besides, I once had a kind of rude tenderness of heart.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
It is pleasant to me to observe, Watson, that you have so far grasped this truth that in these little records of our cases which you have been good enough to draw up, and, I am bound to say, occasionally to embellish, you have given prominence not so much to the many causes célèbres and sensational trials in which I have figured but rather to those incidents which may have been trivial in themselves, but which have given room for those faculties of deduction and of logical synthesis which I have made my special province.
(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
He then began to find fault with other parts of my body: the flatness of my face, the prominence of my nose, mine eyes placed directly in front, so that I could not look on either side without turning my head: that I was not able to feed myself, without lifting one of my fore-feet to my mouth: and therefore nature had placed those joints to answer that necessity.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
The spotted owl gained national prominence in the United States during the 1990s, when environmentalists' efforts to preserve its habitat resulted in federal measures forbidding logging on large swaths of land, as well as federal limits on the sales of harvested wood.
(Researchers find preserving spotted owl habitat may not require a tradeoff with wildfire risk after all, Wikinews)
The figure stopped, and at the moment a ray of moonlight fell upon the masses of driving clouds and showed in startling prominence a dark-haired woman, dressed in the cerements of the grave.
(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)
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