Spanish Word of the Day Archive
Monday March 17, 2008

resaltar, verb:
to stand out; to highlight

You can use resaltar without or with an object (‘intransitively’ or ‘transitively’). Used without an object it means to stand out:

El aspecto en el que resaltó más fue sin duda la política exterior.
The aspect in which he stood out most was undoubtedly foreign policy.

Used with an object, it’s a very common way of saying to highlight something:

Resaltó la importancia de la democracia.
He highlighted the importance of democracy.

If you combine the intransitive meaning with hacer, the meaning of the phrase is to highlight:

La encuesta hace resaltar el descontento que existe.
The survey highlights the dissatisfaction that exists.

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Spanish Word of the Day ArchiveMonday March 17, 2008