Definition
A threshold is the strip of wood under a doorway — and, ever since, every point where one state ends and another begins. Science speaks of the threshold of hearing, the pain threshold, the threshold dose below which nothing happens; politics of electoral thresholds; life of being on the threshold of adulthood. Below the line, nothing; at the line, hesitation; past it, a different world. The crossing takes a step. Reaching the line can take years.
Examples
- Caffeine has little effect below a certain threshold, which varies from person to person.
- The party failed to reach the ten-percent threshold needed to enter parliament.
- She stood on the threshold of an entirely new career.
Synonyms
limit · boundary · starting point · brink · verge
In TOEFL & IELTS
TOEFL science passages use it constantly — sensory thresholds in psychology, temperature thresholds in ecology, threshold effects in economics. 'On the threshold of' is the figurative collocation IELTS rewards. Pronunciation trap: it is THRESH-hold, with one 'h' sound carrying both syllables.