MEPX
Chapter 9 of 11All chapters
  1. 1How to learn a word
  2. 2Roots and affixes
  3. 3Time and presence
  4. 4Attitude and stance
  5. 5Care and precision
  6. 6Honesty and openness
  7. 7Surplus and shortage
  8. 8Change and stability
  9. 9Importance and scale
  10. 10Pairs people mix up
  11. 11Register and tone

Chapter 9 of 11

Importance and scale

Salient, trivial, substantive.

The words

Salient means standing out as most noticeable or important. Trivial means of little value. Substantive means dealing with the real content rather than the form.

  • The salient point is the one that matters most, not simply the first one.
  • A substantive change alters what something does; a cosmetic change does not.

Careful with enormity

Enormity traditionally means great wickedness rather than great size. Enormousness is the size word, though the distinction is slowly being lost.