liminal
adjective
Deborah JowittJon Goss
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Get in Between Liminal
Liminal is a word for the in-between. It describes states, times, spaces, etc., that exist at a point of change—a metaphorical threshold—as in “the liminal zone between sleep and wakefulness.” The idea of a threshold is at the word’s root; it comes from Latin limen, meaning “threshold.” In technical use liminal means “barely perceptible” or “barely capable of eliciting a response,” and it has a familiar partner with a related meaning: subliminal can mean “inadequate to produce a sensation or a perception,” though it more often means “existing or functioning below the threshold of consciousness.” Limen has served as the basis for a number of other English words, including eliminate (“to cast out”), sublime (“lofty in conception or expression”), preliminary (“introductory”), and the woefully underused postliminary (“subsequent”).
Examples of liminal in a Sentence
Nicole Stanton, Los Angeles Times, 19 May 2025
Summer is a state of mind, and the micro-trends below occupy that liminal space between easy city polish and dreamy holiday dressing.
—Talia Abbas, Vogue, 17 May 2025
The ‘Just passing through’ players These are individuals to whom Old Trafford became a liminal space.
—Carl Anka, New York Times, 16 May 2025
Appropriately, the group's music often lifts you to a somewhat liminal state, swaying between altitudes and time zones.
—Anna Kaufman, USA TODAY, 25 Jan. 2025
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Cite this Entry
“Liminal.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/liminal. Accessed 3 Jun. 2025.
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liminal
adjective
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