english word · 2026-10-03
liminality
noun
Meaning
The psychological state of being in a threshold or transitional phase, characterized by ambiguity and disorientation between two stages of life or thought. It describes the moment when one is 'betwixt and between' an old reality and a new one.
Etymology
From the Latin 'limen', meaning threshold.
Examples
"The silence of the empty airport at dawn evoked a strange sense of liminality, as if he were suspended between his past and his future."
"Adolescence is a profound period of liminality, where a person is no longer a child but not yet fully an adult."
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