prominence

views updated May 21 2018

prom·i·nence / ˈprämənəns/ • n. 1. the state of being important or famous: she came to prominence as an artist in the 1960s| [in sing.] the commission gave the case a prominence which it might otherwise have escaped. 2. the fact or condition of standing out from something by physically projecting or being particularly noticeable: radiographs showed enlargement of the right heart with prominence of the pulmonary outflow tract. ∎  a thing that projects from something, esp. a projecting feature of the landscape or a protuberance on a part of the body: the rocky prominence resembled a snow-capped mountain. ∎  Astron. a stream of incandescent gas projecting above the sun's chromosphere.