subliminal
in a sentence

It is illegal to flash commercial subliminal messages on television.
subliminal = not recognized by the conscious mind, but still of influence

Back in the '50s, there was a fuss over a brainwashing technique known as subliminal communication. A movie theater found that if its films included tiny blips of commercials for popcorn and soda —moving past so quickly that the viewer did not consciously realize he was seeing them—popcorn and soda sales went up. These results were highly uncertain, though, and the technique was abandoned. Since 1957 it has been against FCC policy to permit subliminal techniques on television. (source) Time, Inc., 1978

According to Snopes.com, subliminal advertising is completely ineffective.
subliminal = not recognized by the conscious mind, but intended to influence

I should never have let John write the first chapter because he always has to twist things subliminally. (source) Paul Zindel, The Pigman, 1968
subliminally = in a manner not recognized by the conscious mind, but still of influence

Eckels stood smelling of the air, and there was a thing to the air, a chemical taint so subtle, so slight, that only a faint cry of his subliminal senses warned him it was there. (source) Ray Bradbury, A Sound of Thunder, 1952

His mother and sister subliminally taught Lale what it was a woman wanted from a man, and so far he had spent his life trying to live up to these lessons.† (source)

Drew was glaring at Diana Leven, subliminally begging to be dragged off the witness stand, Alex assumed.† (source) Jodi Picoult, Nineteen Minutes, 2007

Man's subliminal urge to destroy what he could neither subdue nor deify.† (source)

In moments of great stress, every life form that exists gives out a tiny subliminal signal.† (source)

Bollywood pop—turned down to a low, almost subliminal whine—spiraled and sparkled hypnotically, just at the threshold of my hearing.† (source) Donna Tartt, The Goldfinch, 2013

Go said we must be mutually subliminally forgetting to mail those checks, that what we really wanted to forget was our dad.† (source) Gillian Flynn, Gone Girl, 2012

show 29 more with this conextual meaning

Some of it was slipping through, flooding his brain with sinister subliminal images.† (source) Stephen King, The Shining, 1977

"No surprises" is the motto of the franchise ghetto, its Good Housekeeping seal, subliminally blazoned on every sign and logo that make up the curves and grids of light that outline the Basin.† (source) Neal Stephenson, Snow Crash, 1992

It was like a lecture strip in a subliminal training projector at the Bene Gesserit school ....but faster ....blindingly faster.† (source) Frank Herbert, Dune, 1965

An eerie static, insistent but near subliminal, that made me think of wintering souls, some form of dormant life approaching the threshold of perception.† (source) Don DeLillo, White Noise, 1985

We are dogs, she and I, sniffing for clues, our throats quivering with subliminal growls.† (source) Joy Kogawa, Obasan, 1981

Mathematical solutions are selected by the subliminal self on the basis of "mathematical beauty," of the harmony of numbers and forms, of geometric elegance.† (source)

It was like a dream, like something in some subliminal fantasy, or a scene that had come straight from the imagination.† (source) Nora Roberts, Summer Pleasures, 2002

Maybe the letter was a subliminal open line to my brothers.† (source) Dave Pelzer, A Man Named Dave, 1999

They won't buy a television, like everyone else, because my father says it turns you into a cretin and emits harmful radiation and subliminal messages as well.† (source) Margaret Atwood, Cat's Eye, 1988

It had been seeping in, in its subliminal, unidentifiable way since they'd entered the place, all strings, reeds, muted brass.† (source)

"If, as you suggest," I began, "they constantly express and interpret themselves and their universe by a kind of subliminal dreamsong, it would seem to follow that, as in all things, some are better at it than others.† (source) Roger Zelazny, My Name is Legion, 1976

Years passed and I became a part of the Randel family and subliminally tried to become a substitute for the lost Randy.† (source) Pat Conroy, The Water is Wide, 1972

The skin is off the hand—we see it immediately, something very wrong—but by reversing the thumb he makes it look even more wrong, it registers subliminally even if we can't put our finger on it, something really out of order, not right.† (source) Donna Tartt, The Goldfinch, 2013

As Poincaré pointed out, there must be a subliminal choice of what facts we observe.† (source)

And I picked up on Patsy's subliminal message of brushing off whatever problems came her way.† (source) Dave Pelzer, A Man Named Dave, 1999

Acting with almost subliminal caution, he drove past the house without slowing and parked around the comer on a side street about a quarter of a mile away.† (source) Stephen King, Cujo, 1981

I mean, she thinks she can get away with her subliminal twists by calling them omens, but she doesn't fool me.† (source) Paul Zindel, The Pigman, 1968

He put the gun down,' the psychiatrist said, 'because even on a subliminal level, he understood that otherwise, he was going to be shot.† (source) Jodi Picoult, Nineteen Minutes, 2007

It was indeed the only one of the many structures that betrayed any sign of activity about it, though this was more a subliminal impression than anything one could put one's finger on.† (source)

Now that he mentioned it, I was aware of muffled music emanating from the rear of the apartment, a deep, subliminal thump.† (source) Donna Tartt, The Goldfinch, 2013

Exhausted sleep, spine to spine, in dirty sheets that smelled of cigarette ash and dog, Popchik belly-up and snoring, subliminal whispers in the air blowing from the wall vents if you listened hard enough.† (source) Donna Tartt, The Goldfinch, 2013

The subliminal self, Poincaré said, looks at a large number of solutions to a problem, but only the interesting ones break into the domain of consciousness.† (source)

Associated with your questions will be a subliminal Quality discrimination identical to the Quality discrimination that led Poincaré to the Fuchsian equations.† (source)

Poincaré then hypothesized that this selection is made by what he called the "subliminal self," an entity that corresponds exactly with what Phaedrus called preintellectual awareness.† (source)

Then, by accident (Dr. Hilarius, if asked, would accuse her of using subliminal cues in the environment to guide her to a particular person) or howsoever, she came on one Stanley Koteks, who wore wire-rim bifocals, sandals, argyle socks, and at first glance seemed too young to be working here.† (source)

He had descended consciously (awake) into the kingdom of the unconscious (deep sleep) and had incorporated the values of the subliminal experience into his waking personality.† (source)

I lay there, having drowned in West, my body having drifted down to lie there in the comforting, subliminal ooze on the sea floor of History.† (source)

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subliminalin a sentence