liminality

Liminality is a state of transition between one stage and the next, especially between major stages in one’s life or during a rite of passage.

The concept of liminality was first developed and is used most often in the science of anthropology (the study of human origins, behavior, and culture). In a general sense, liminality is an in-between period, typically marked by uncertainty.

Example: After graduation, many students find themselves in a state of liminality before they’re fully established in the workplace.

Liminality comes from the Latin līmen, meaning “threshold,” combined with the suffixes -al (meaning “pertaining to”) and -ity (used to form abstract nouns expressing state or condition). In its literal sense, a threshold is a doorway. So liminality is the threshold, or gateway, between two stages.

The concept of liminality was developed by French anthropologist Arnold van Gennep in his 1909 book The Rites of Passage and was further expanded by British anthropologist Victor Turner. The word is first recorded in a 1964 work by Turner.

Both van Gennep and Turner studied rites of passage (major life events or ceremonies, such as puberty or marriage) in human communities and observed how they often had similar stages. Van Gennep separated these into the preliminal, liminal, and postliminal stages. The liminal stage is the middle stage, the in-between period during which a person has not yet fully reached their new status in whatever rite of passage they are going through. (For example, being “the new kid” for a while when attending a new school, before being fully incorporated into a new group of friends.)

What are some other forms of liminality?

• liminal (adjective)

What are some synonyms for liminality?

• in-between
• transition
• threshold

What are some words that share a root or word element with liminality?

• subliminal
• limen
• eliminate
• preliminary

What are some words that often get used in discussing liminality?

• anthropology
• psychology
• rite of passage
• transition

Liminality can be used in the context of any rite of passage or transitional space, including personal life events, religious rites, or legal systems.

I like being a librarian and all but if someone offered me funding to research & write a book of poems about the serendipitous liminality of airport bars I would drop it in a heartbeat

— Zoë (@ZENissen) October 16, 2019

A fantastic doc student of mine, @JesseSelf720! Working on overlap of immigration & carceral systems, centering parolees’ experiences with legal liminality.

— Angela S. García (@AGarciaUChicago) October 16, 2019

I don’t think I’ve properly expressed how much I love Taeyong’s “Long Flight.” The lyrics and the melody of the song perfectly captures the sense of wonder that comes from being in a state of liminality—of not knowing what exactly awaits on the other side. https://t.co/YZa3lDb0lz

— a mushroom (@lotsofbluejaes) October 23, 2019

Which of the following is an example of liminality?

A. A political revolutionary period.
B. The period between a president’s election and inauguration.
C. A probationary period at a new job.
D. All of the above.