thriller
[thril-er]
- a person or thing that thrills.
- an exciting, suspenseful play or story, especially a mystery story.
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Origin of thriller
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for thriller
Contemporary Examples
Thriller author Patrick Oster was a reporter in Berlin when the wall came down 25 years ago.
How The Cold War Endgame Played Out In The Rubble Of The Berlin WallWilliam O’Connor
November 9, 2014
What prompted you to pick the fall of the Berlin Wall as the backdrop for your thriller?
How The Cold War Endgame Played Out In The Rubble Of The Berlin WallWilliam O’Connor
November 9, 2014
With Thriller, we took 800 songs and whittled them down to nine.
Quincy Jones Talks Chicago’s Mean Streets, Why Kanye West Is No Michael Jackson, and BieberMarlow Stern
September 25, 2014
He believed American audiences were ready for a thriller set in Africa.
His detective novels contain none of the twists that strain credulity so often relied upon by thriller novelists.
Historical Examples
How like a "thriller" it was to be rushing toward such a gripping scene!
Spring StreetJames H. Richardson
If she only could write scenarios, what a thriller this would make!
Exit BettyGrace Livingston Hill
“But a thriller,” Ace assured them, as Norris lighted his pipe on the lee of a bowlder.
Unexplored!Allen Chaffee
This was a thriller that appealed to the familiar in him,—the impishness that died hard.
Joyce of the North WoodsHarriet T. Comstock
This is the weird, fantastic “thriller” from which sprang the Protocols.
The History of a LieHerman Bernstein
thriller
- a book, film, play, etc, depicting crime, mystery, or espionage in an atmosphere of excitement and suspense
- a person or thing that thrills
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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 thriller
n.
1889, "sensational story," agent noun from thrill (v.).
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
thriller
A suspenseful, sensational story or film: “Ken Follett writes best-selling spy thrillers.”
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Note
The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition
Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.