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
Blake Simons, IndieWire, 23 May 2025
Smith is now approximately halfway through her pregnancy and will remain in this liminal space for at least another twelve weeks.
—Brea Baker, Refinery29, 22 May 2025
That liminal space that Elie describes between belief and disbelief has closed, at least for the time being.
—Marc Weingarten, Los Angeles Times, 22 May 2025
As a death doula, a big part of the work is sitting in that liminal space rather than running away from it.
—Nicole Stanton, Los Angeles Times, 19 May 2025
See All Example Sentences for liminal
Cite this Entry
“Liminal.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/liminal. Accessed 5 Jun. 2025.
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liminal
adjective
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