subliminal
adj.adj. describing something that you receive or see very quickly, so fast that you do not notice it. It is often used to describe messages or images that are hidden in a video or advertisement.
adj. occurring or perceived below the threshold of conscious awareness. Often used to describe visual or auditory stimuli that are presented too briefly to be consciously processed.
The subliminal message appears for only a fraction of a second.
Researchers used subliminal cues to study how people react to stimuli they are not aware they have seen.
The film's director used subliminal imagery to create a sense of unease without explicitly showing the source of the protagonist's fear.
PIE word *upó The adjective is derived from sub- (prefix meaning ‘beneath, under’) + liminal (“of or pertaining to an entrance or threshold”) (from Latin līminālis, from līmen (“doorstep, threshold; doorway, entrance; beginning, commencement”) (possibly ultimately from Proto-Indo-European Heh₃l- (“to bend, bow; elbow”)) + -mn̥ (suffix forming action nouns or result nouns from verbs)) + -ālis (suffix forming adjectives of relationship from nouns)). The English word is borrowed from German subliminal, or a calque of German unterschwellig (“subliminal”, literally “beneath the threshold”). The noun is derived from the adjective.