liminal
adjective
Simple meaning
About or in a state that is in-between or transitional between two other states, while belonging to neither.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
limihnuhlSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈlɪmɪnəl
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
adjective
anthropologyliterary theory
Pertaining to or in a state that is in-between or transitional between two (or more) other states, while belonging to neither; pertaining to or in a state such as to be neither definitively in a particular other state or category nor definitively outside it.
Of or pertaining to an entrance or threshold.
Of or pertaining to a beginning or first stage of a process.
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
This meaning: (anthropology, literary theory) Pertaining to or in a state that is in-between or transitional between two (or more) other states, while belonging to neither; pertaining to or in a state such as to be neither definitively in a particular other state or category nor definitively outside it.
Used this way, liminal is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It turns up most in literature or storytelling and academic writing contexts.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Formal
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- No strong connotation
- Usage feel
- Literary and expressive
Where it naturally appears
- Literature/storytelling
- Academic writing
Usage note
Comfortable in writing and prepared speech; in casual conversation a shorter everyday word usually sounds more natural.
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.