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
Steven Louis Goldstein, New York Times, 11 Apr. 2025
And there’s already a beautiful precedent in this show, which was a real gift to us, of these counterparts of each of these characters being able to be with each other in a dream space or in a sort of liminal space.
—Glenn Garner, Deadline, 4 Apr. 2025
The humor also comes from star Hauser, who easily occupies the uneasy liminal space between comedy and drama.
—Katie Walsh, Boston Herald, 4 Apr. 2025
What is grief if not living in the liminal space between mourning and coping, of life and death itself?
—Samantha Bergeson, IndieWire, 27 Mar. 2025
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Cite this Entry
“Liminal.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/liminal. Accessed 21 Apr. 2025.
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liminal
adjective
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