Word of the Day: Subliminal

by Daniel Scocco

Subliminal is an adjective used to describe things or stimuli that work below the threshold of consciousness, thus influencing the individual without being perceived as clear thoughts or ideas. For example you can have subliminal advertising.

There is, in fact, a subliminal seriousness: The quest for marketing buzz, the worldwide ambition to be more than a blip on the dot.com community’s radar screen. (USA Today)

On gut feeling, Riley gave the order to shoot down what turned out to be an enemy missile. After hours of analysis, the officer and a cognitive psychologist resolved that his feeling was a subliminal recognition that the missile entered his screen at a slightly different interval from the planes he was used to tracking. (LA Times)