between worlds
Caught in transition
Between worlds describes a state of existing in transition or limbo—not fully belonging to one realm or another.
The phrase often captures cultural displacement: immigrants caught between their homeland and adopted country, or people straddling different social classes.
It can also be spiritual or psychological: She felt between worlds after the divorce, no longer married but not yet single.
In fantasy contexts, between worlds may be literal—a threshold space separating dimensions or planes of existence.
- liminalAt a threshold
- thresholdPoint of beginning
- portalImposing entrance or gate
- veilFabric that obscures
- crossing overMoving across a boundary
twilight · dusk · dawn · crossing · passage · transition · life and death · ghost · spirit · afterlife · purgatory · dreamscape · dream state · astral · ethereal · boundary · edge · membrane
- imaginary worldsdreamland, fairyland, wonderland, fantasy realm, fantasy land
- realmsrealm, kingdom, domain, Heaven, Hades
- immigrant literatureimmigrant stories, displacement, cultural memory, belonging, assimilation
- parallel worldsalternate universe, alternate reality, parallel dimension, mirror universe, other dimension
- immigrant storiesimmigrant experience, immigration story, Ellis Island, green card, first generation
- borderlandsborderland, borderlands, border, border zone, border region
between worldsin the world
Within global scope
single-minded · undivided · whole · integrated · unified
between worldsincarnate
Given bodily form
embodied · in the flesh · corporeal · flesh and blood · in the here and now
between, worlds, world, betwixt, worldly, unworldly, worldliness, otherworldly