suspense
[suh-spens]
- a state or condition of mental uncertainty or excitement, as in awaiting a decision or outcome, usually accompanied by a degree of apprehension or anxiety.
- a state of mental indecision.
- undecided or doubtful condition, as of affairs: For a few days matters hung in suspense.
- the state or condition of being suspended.
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Origin of suspense
1375–1425; late Middle English < Medieval Latin suspēnsum deferment, suspension, uncertainty, noun use of neuter of Latin suspēnsus hung up, doubtful, in suspense (past participle of suspendere to hang up, leave undecided), equivalent to sus- sus- + pēnsus (pend-, stem of pendere (translation) to hang (see pend) + -tus past participle suffix, with dt > s)
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for suspenseful
Contemporary Examples
A sure-fire draft pick turned into a 50-50 chance, and then a suspenseful wait through the final rounds of the NFL draft.
“I wanted to create a suspenseful sequence,” he explained to the crowd.
“Omar” is funny and suspenseful, with the perfect balance of romance and action.
But these are minor quibbles for a work as unrelentingly ambitious and suspenseful as A Dance With Dragons.
Wallner brings the 1970s Soviet Union to life in this suspenseful tale of love and espionage during the Cold War.
suspense
- the condition of being insecure or uncertainthe matter of the succession remained in suspense for many years
- mental uncertainty; anxietytheir father's illness kept them in a state of suspense
- excitement felt at the approach of the climaxa play of terrifying suspense
- the condition of being suspended
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Word Origin
C15: from Medieval Latin suspensum delay, from Latin suspendere to hang up; see suspend
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
Word Origin and History for suspenseful
suspense
n.
c.1400, "not being executed, unfulfilled" (of legal matters), from Anglo-French suspens (in en suspens "in abeyance," c.1300), from Old French suspens "act of suspending," from Latin suspensus, past participle of suspendere (see suspend). Meaning "state of mental uncertainty" (mid-15c.) is from legal meaning of "not rendered, not paid, not carried out" (e.g. suspended sentence). As a genre of novels, stories, etc., attested from 1952.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper