cliffhanger
Americannoun
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a melodramatic or adventure serial in which each installment ends in suspense in order to interest the reader or viewer in the next installment.
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a single installment in such a serial.
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a suspenseful movie, novel, etc.
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the suspenseful ending itself.
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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.
noun
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a situation of imminent disaster usually occurring at the end of each episode of a serialized film
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the serialized film itself
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a situation that is dramatic or uncertain
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of cliffhanger
An Americanism dating back to 1935–40
Explanation
A cliffhanger is a plot device in a book, movie, or TV show that leaves the audience in suspense at the end of a scene or episode. If your favorite show ends its season with a cliffhanger, you'll have to wait months to find out what happens next. The key to a good cliffhanger is a character in some precarious position — this keeps the plot exciting, and it also ensures that the audience will return to see how dilemmas are resolved. In the case of a book, a cliffhanger keeps you turning the pages. The use of cliffhangers goes back to Homer's "Odyssey," though the word itself dates from 1937, from serial movies that would sometimes literally leave characters dangling from a cliff at the end.
Vocabulary lists containing cliffhanger
Awkward
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Anything But Typical
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Early Departures
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Appeared in the December 2, 2025, print edition as 'A House Cliffhanger in Nashville'.
From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 1, 2025
Last year, it opened Cliffhanger Games to work on a third-person, single-player Black Panther game.
From Seattle Times • Mar. 1, 2024
One might surmise that if Davis weren't married to "Die Hard 2" and "Cliffhanger" director Renny Harlin, who directed "Long Kiss," Davis might have steered clear of the action genre entirely.
From Salon • Dec. 25, 2022
Outside of the franchise, Stallone has starred in movies like "First Blood," "Demolition," "Cliffhanger" and "Grudge Match."
From Fox News • Jul. 7, 2021
Cliffhanger endings, she said, tend to be deployed only for major plotlines.
From New York Times • Jun. 22, 2020
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
