cliffhanger

or cliff-hang·er

[klif-hang-er]

See more synonyms for cliffhanger on Thesaurus.com

noun

a melodramatic or adventure serial in which each installment ends in suspense in order to interest the reader or viewer in the next installment.
a single installment in such a serial.
a suspenseful movie, novel, etc.

the suspenseful ending itself.
a situation or contest of which the outcome is suspensefully uncertain up to the very last moment: The game was a cliffhanger, but our team finally won.

Origin of cliffhanger

An Americanism dating back to 1935–40

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Related Words for cliffhanger

shocker, thriller, squeaker, spine-chiller

Examples from the Web for cliffhanger

Contemporary Examples of cliffhanger

Why not finish hard on a cliffhanger and the next one just jump straight back in?
‘No Regrets’: Peter Jackson Says Goodbye to Middle-Earth
Alex Suskind
December 4, 2014
And, maddeningly, “A” ended on a cliffhanger, just as a potentially explosive confrontation was about to go down.
‘The Walking Dead’ Season Finale Review of ‘A’: Rick Grimes Is a Murderer
Melissa Leon
March 31, 2014
The best thing to happen to it was the aborting of the third season, which effectively ended the series in a cliffhanger.
‘True Detective,’ Obsessive-Compulsive Noir, and ‘Twin Peaks’
Jimmy So
March 14, 2014
The cliffhanger on the first one was “somebody whacked the erasers.”
The Crossword Puzzle Turns 100: The ‘King of Crossword’ on Its Strange History
Kevin Fallon
December 21, 2013
I did it on two puzzles where the first one was a cliffhanger and the next week was the interrogation of the kids.
The Crossword Puzzle Turns 100: The ‘King of Crossword’ on Its Strange History
Kevin Fallon
December 21, 2013

British Dictionary definitions for cliffhanger

cliffhanger

noun

1. a situation of imminent disaster usually occurring at the end of each episode of a serialized film
2. the serialized film itself
a situation that is dramatic or uncertain

Derived Formscliffhanging, adjective

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012