limen
Americannoun
-
limens,
plural
-
limina
plural
noun
Usage
What does limen mean? A limen is a threshold or border between one thing and another. In psychology and physiology, the word more specifically refers to the point or threshold at which a sensation, such as pain, becomes strong enough to be experienced. In this sense, the limen is the dividing line between the sensation being too faint to be noticed and the point where it starts to be felt. In medicine, limen refers to the opening or entrance to a body part, such as an anatomical canal. The adjective liminal can be used for all senses of the word limen to describe things that are located or exist at such a point. The state of existing at such a point is called liminality. The correct plural of limen can be either limens or limina. Example: This study will attempt to identify the limen at which the sensation of pain can be experienced by a patient.
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of limen
First recorded in 1890–95, limen is from the Latin word līmen
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
The lowest and highest intensity points of sensation are called the lower and upper limen, or threshold, respectively.
From The Mind and Its Education by George Herbert Betts
Do you see that you leave all your Cares and melancholy Airs at Home, and bring nothing hither but Jokes and Merriment; and as Juvenal says, _Protenus ante meum, quicquid dolet, exue limen.
From Colloquies of Erasmus, Volume I. by Desiderius Erasmus
According to Quinn, the ad limina visits—obligatory meetings between bishops and the pope, during which each bishop reports on the state of his diocese—that take place every five years have not been very useful either.
From Time ● Oct. 13, 2014
The truly important issues never get talked about in ad limina visits,” says Quinn.
From Time ● Oct. 13, 2014
When they were bishops, these men would also have been asked to report to Rome every five years for "ad limina" visits—or planning and prayer meetings with the pope and other officials.
From Slate ● Mar. 11, 2013
But he is back in combative form, penning a preview of his ad limina thoughts for the Jesuit magazine America.
From Time Magazine Archive
True, he had spent so much time in Rome before his election, that he was able to escape in 1390 the triennial visit ad limina which was normally expected of an Abbot.
From William de Colchester Abbot of Westminster by Ernest Harold Pearce
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
