to be "in between" two distinct realms, as in the threshold of a doorway. Liminality refers to the ambiguous nature of symbolic objects and ritual activity, in that the sacred reality of the object or act is to be found not in the thing itself but in one's dynamic relationship to it. The term is often used in reference to the transitional state within a rite of passage, i.e., the condition (or non-condition) in which the initiand is in the process of leaving one state of being and entering into another. While in liminal transition, the initiand is "in between," and is therefore a kind of non-person until he/she emerges anew on the other side.
Liminality (from the Latin word līmen, meaning "a threshold") is the quality of the second stage of a ritual in the theories of Arnold van Gennep, Victor Turner, and others. In these theories, a ritual, especially a rite of passage, involves some change to the participants, especially their social status.