suspense

• suspence (obsolete)

From Middle English suspense, suspence, from Anglo-Norman suspens (as in en suspens) and Old French suspens, from Latin suspēnsus.

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• IPA^(key): /səˈspɛns/
• Rhymes: -ɛns

suspense (usually uncountable, plural suspenses)

1. The condition of being suspended; cessation for a time.
   • 1717, Alexander Pope, Eloisa to Abelard, lines 249–252; republished in The Complete Poetical Works of Alexander Pope, Boston, New York: Houghton, Mifflin and Company, 1902, page 113:

     For thee the Fates, severely kind, ordain / A cool suspense from pleasure and from pain; / Thy life a long dead calm of fix'd repose; / No pulse that riots, and no blood that glows.

2. the pleasurable emotion of anticipation and excitement regarding the outcome or climax of a book, film etc.
3. The unpleasant emotion of anxiety or apprehension in an uncertain situation.
   • 1636 (date written), John Denham, “The Destruction of Troy, an Essay upon the Second Book of Virgils Æneis”, in Poems and Translations, with The Sophy, 4th edition, London: […] [John Macock] for H[enry] Herringman […], published 1668, →OCLC:

     Ten days the prophet in suspense remain'd.

   • 1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. […], volume I, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, pages 265–266:

     I believe that, to the young, suspense is the most intolerable suffering. Active misery always brings with it its own power of endurance.

4. (law) A temporary cessation of one's right; suspension, as when the rent or other profits of land cease by unity of possession of land and rent.
5. (US, military) A deadline.

   She sent us that assignment with a suspense of noon tomorrow.

• in suspense
• suspense account
• suspenseful

suspense (not comparable)

1. (obsolete) Held or lifted up; held or prevented from proceeding.
   • 1667, John Milton, “Book VII”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:

     [The great light of day] suspens in heav'n.

2. (obsolete) Expressing, or proceeding from, suspense or doubt.
   • 1667, John Milton, “Book II”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:

     Expectation held his look suspense.

Nominalisation of the feminine form of suspens.

• IPA^(key): /sys.pɑ̃s/

suspense f (plural suspenses)

1. suspense (state of being suspended)

Borrowed from English suspense, itself from Old French suspense. Doublet of suspens.

• IPA^(key): /sys.pɛns/

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suspense m (plural suspenses)

1. suspense (emotion; feeling)

   Cet acteur a joué dans plusieurs films à suspense.

   This actor played in a lot of thrillers.

• “suspense”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

From French suspense, from English suspense.

suspense m (plural suspenses)

1. suspense
2. thriller

Borrowed from English suspense.

• IPA^(key): /ˈsa.spens/, /suˈspans/, /syˈspans/^[1]
• Rhymes: -aspens, -ans

suspense f (invariable)

1. suspense (all senses)

suspēnse

1. vocative masculine singular of suspēnsus

• “suspense”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• suspense in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.

Borrowed from English suspense.

• Hyphenation: sus‧pen‧se

suspense m (plural suspenses)

1. suspense (the excited anticipation of an outcome)
2. (fiction) thriller (a suspenseful, sensational genre of fiction)

Borrowed from French suspense, from English suspense.

• IPA^(key): /susˈpense/ [susˈpẽn.se]
• Rhymes: -ense
• Syllabification: sus‧pen‧se

suspense m (plural suspenses)

1. (Spain) suspense

   Synonym: (Latin America) suspenso

2. thriller

• “suspense”, in Diccionario de la lengua española (in Spanish), online version 23.7, Royal Spanish Academy, 2023 November 28