liminal

If you're in between two places or experiences, especially if you're transitioning between them, you're in a liminal place. Teenagers are in that liminal stage between childhood and adulthood — not always an easy place to be!

A liminal space is a kind of threshold or doorway to a new experience, and the word's root reflects that idea. The Latin root, limen, means "sill, cross-piece, or threshold." This can be a meaningful transition, like the liminal moments between life and death. It can also be the beginning of perception, that first moment you can sense something; when something is instead subliminal, it's too far below that threshold for you to sense it.

Definitions of liminal
  1. adjective
    having the nature of a transitional space, phase, or experience
  2. adjective
    (psychology) relating to the threshold beyond which sensation cannot be perceived
Word Family
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