liminality
1
9.9
- noun
- /ˌlɪməˈnælɪti/
- Traveling between two countries can create a sense of liminality, where one feels neither fully here nor there.
- a period of liminality
Examples
-
Not all visions were sought; however, unsolicited dreams, often associated with times of liminality, could have powerful effects on Plains peoples.
Academic text (1998) -
Because the ritual of telling works to banish liminality and establish a coherent self, the truth of the narrative is secondary.
Academic text (2018) -
The second phase, transition or liminality, is "betwixt" and "between" social categories and states of being.
Academic text (1994) -
The frontier's closure coincides in the popular imagination with constructions of liminality, or boundary crossing.
Academic text (1997) -
There are parallels between spirits, wind, and perfume and incense; all are ephemeral, contagious, and associated with liminality.
Academic text (1999) -
Colonized histories divide our allegiances, situating artists and scholars in a fluctuating state of liminality.
Academic text (2015) -
During the ceremony, the participants felt a sense of liminality, caught between their old lives and the new paths ahead.
-
Many people experience a feeling of liminality when they are transitioning from adolescence to adulthood.
Synonyms
471
3.7
A period of change from one state or stage to another
51
6.3
A state in which a plan or request waits without a decision
37
7.2
Waiting without a clear decision or result
15
7.4
A situation between two clear sides where rules are unclear
8
6.1
A time when things keep changing and nothing is certain
1
7.5
Being in the middle between two or more things
How Transitional
Surface Forms
Morphology
Etymology
The word liminality comes from the Latin word limen, which means 'threshold'. So liminality is like standing on a doorway, a time or place 'in between' two stages, a moment of change and uncertainty.