subliminal

[ suhb-lim-uh-nl ]

/ sʌbˈlɪm ə nl /

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See synonyms for subliminal on Thesaurus.com

adjective Psychology.

existing or operating below the threshold of consciousness; being or employing stimuli insufficiently intense to produce a discrete sensation but often being or designed to be intense enough to influence the mental processes or the behavior of the individual: a subliminal stimulus; subliminal advertising.

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Origin of subliminal

1885–90; sub- + Latin līmin- (stem of līmen) threshold + -al¹

OTHER WORDS FROM subliminal

sub·lim·i·nal·ly, adverbnon·sub·lim·i·nal, adjectivenon·sub·lim·i·nal·ly, adverb

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use subliminal in a sentence

And I think that, subliminally at least, the hidden story of the shoot is what helps sell us on the visible story of its subject.
A Photographer's Circus|Blake Gopnik|May 16, 2012|DAILY BEAST
He managed to do that by reducing the health debate down to almost subliminally simple terms.
Obama's New Enemies|Richard Wolffe|July 23, 2009|DAILY BEAST
It is possible to assume that I knew it subliminally, and that the medium abstracted it from those hidden levels of my mind.
Psychical Miscellanea|J. Arthur Hill
I speak of calculations subliminally performed in the carrying out of post-hypnotic suggestions.
Human Personality and its Survival of Bodily Death|Frederick W. H. Myers

Such an impression, for instance, is that of alarm, suggested by some vague sound or odour which is only subliminally perceived.
Human Personality and its Survival of Bodily Death|Frederick W. H. Myers
I believe that his patients did subliminally receive such hints, and work them out in their own hypnotic behaviour.
Human Personality and its Survival of Bodily Death|Frederick W. H. Myers
Besides, she felt, more subliminally, that he was never so near slipping through her fingers as when he took that meek way.
Between The Dark And The Daylight|William Dean Howells

British Dictionary definitions for subliminal

subliminal

/ (sʌbˈlɪmɪnəl) /

adjective

resulting from processes of which the individual is not aware

(of stimuli) less than the minimum intensity or duration required to elicit a response

Derived forms of subliminal

subliminally, adverb

Word Origin for subliminal

C19: from Latin sub- below + līmen threshold

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

subliminal

Origin of subliminal

OTHER WORDS FROM subliminal

Words related to subliminal

How to use subliminal in a sentence

British Dictionary definitions for subliminal

Derived forms of subliminal

Word Origin for subliminal