Log in or Sign up
  1. threshold love

Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. n. A piece of wood or stone placed beneath a door; a doorsill.
  2. n. An entrance or a doorway.
  3. n. The place or point of beginning; the outset.
  4. n. The point that must be exceeded to begin producing a given effect or result or to elicit a response: a low threshold of pain.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. n. The plank, stone, or piece of timber which lies at the bottom of a door, or under it, particularly the door of a dwelling-house, church, temple, or other building; a door-sill; hence, entrance; gate; door.
  2. n. Hence, the place or point of entering or beginning; outset: as, he is now at the threshold of his argument.
  3. n. In psychology, the limit below which a given stimulus,' or the difference between two stimuli, ceases to be perceptible. Compare schwelle.

Wiktionary

  1. n. The bottom-most part of a doorway that one crosses to enter; a sill.
  2. n. by extension An entrance
  3. n. The start of the landing area of a runway
  4. n. engineering The quantitative point at which an action is triggered, especially a lower limit
  5. n. The wage or salary at which income tax becomes due
  6. n. The outset of an action or project
  7. n. The point where one mentally or physically is vulnerable in response to provocation or to particular things in general. As in emotions, stress, or pain.
  8. n. The point of beginning or entry

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. n. The plank, stone, or piece of timber, which lies under a door, especially of a dwelling house, church, temple, or the like; the doorsill; hence, entrance; gate; door.
  2. n. Fig.: The place or point of entering or beginning, entrance; outset.

WordNet 3.0

  1. n. the entrance (the space in a wall) through which you enter or leave a room or building; the space that a door can close
  2. n. the smallest detectable sensation
  3. n. a region marking a boundary
  4. n. the sill of a door; a horizontal piece of wood or stone that forms the bottom of a doorway and offers support when passing through a doorway
  5. n. the starting point for a new state or experience

Etymologies

  1. From Old English þrescold ("doorsill", "point of entering"), from þrescan ("tread", "trample") (Wiktionary)
  2. Middle English thresshold, from Old English therscold, threscold. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)

Examples

Show 10 more examples...

Log in or sign up to add your own related words.

synonyms (7)

Words with the same meaning

  1. gate
  1. door
  1. outset
  1. sill
  1. groundsel
  1. doorsill
  1. limen

hypernyms (14)

Words that are more generic or abstract

  1. edge
  2. bound
  1. boundary
  2. sill
  1. commencement
  2. starting time
  1. beginning
  2. start
  1. kickoff
  2. get-go
  1. outset
  2. showtime
  1. offset
  2. first

same context (20)

Words that are found in similar contexts

  1. doorway
  2. confine
  3. limit
  4. level
  1. boundary
  2. gate
  3. verge
  4. input
  1. peak
  2. frequency
  3. depth
  4. requirement
  1. range
  2. parameter
  3. phase
  4. glimpse
  1. dimension
  2. criterion
  3. stair
  4. circuit

reverse dictionary (34)

Words that contain this word in their definition

  1. majority operation
  2. imperceptible
  3. threisshfold
  4. threshwold
  5. threswold
  6. throshel
  1. trestle
  2. subliminal
  3. doorsill
  4. doorstone
  5. in lim
  6. limen
  1. chronaxie
  2. balconet
  3. dearn
  4. doorstep
  5. in limine
  6. liminal
  1. facilitation
  2. supraliminal
  3. liminary
  4. threshold element
  5. threshold function
  6. threshold gate
  1. threshold operation
  2. all-or-none
  3. sone
  4. threshold
  5. saddle
  6. sill
  1. thresh-fold
  2. weather strip
  3. pass
  4. schwelle

tags (1)

Free-form, user-generated categorization

  1. often misspelled

Log in or sign up to add your own tag.

Wordmap

(beta)

Word visualization

Lists

These user-created lists contain the word ‘threshold’.

More lists containing ‘threshold’

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • ruzuzu "WORD HISTORY: Perhaps the tradition of carrying the bride over the threshold is dying out, but knowledge of the custom persists, leading one to wonder about the -hold or the thresh- in the word threshold. Scholars are still wondering about the last part of the word, but the thresh- can be explained. It is related to the word thresh, which refers to an agricultural process. This process of beating the stems and husks of grain or cereal plants to separate the grain or seeds from the straw was at one time done with the feet of oxen or human beings. Thus, the Germanic word ·therskan, or by the switching of sounds called metathesis, ·threskan, meant 'thresh' and 'tread.' This association with the feet is probably retained in Old English therscold or threscold (Modern English threshold), 'sill of a door (over which one treads).'"

    --The American Heritage Dictionary Sep 28, 2010

Tweets

Looking for tweets for threshold.

‘threshold’ has been looked up 4127 times, loved by 8 people, added to 54 lists, commented on 1 time, and has a Scrabble score of 16.