thriller

[ thril-er ]

noun

1. a person or thing that thrills.
2. an exciting, suspenseful play or story, especially a mystery story.

thriller

/ ˈθrɪlə /

noun

1. a book, film, play, etc, depicting crime, mystery, or espionage in an atmosphere of excitement and suspense
2. a person or thing that thrills

thriller

1. A suspenseful, sensational story or film: “Ken Follett writes best-selling spy thrillers.”

Notes

In Great Britain , the word thriller is sometimes used for all mystery novels : “Martha Grimes, an American, writes British-style thrillers.”

Word History and Origins

Origin of thriller¹

1885–90; 1920–25 thriller fordef 2; thrill + -er ¹

Example Sentences

That’s what happened in the mind-bending1999 thriller The Matrix.

From Science News For Students

Christianna Brand suggests that six or seven suspects should be the limit, while Lionel Davidson recalls how he came to write his magnificent thriller, “The Rose of Tibet.”

From Washington Post

In The Dissident, Khashoggi’s story unfolds like a political thriller.

From Time

Tennessee upended Baltimore’s storybook season in last year’s playoffs, and the Titans won an OT thriller when the two teams met in November.

From FiveThirtyEight

While the plot takes a darker turn into thriller territory, this read is ideal for anyone who has ever felt manipulated, threatened, or dismissed in the workplace.

From Fortune

If the ongoing Hollywood scandal were a teen thriller from the 90s.

From The Daily Beast

Thriller author Patrick Oster was a reporter in Berlin when the wall came down 25 years ago.

From The Daily Beast

What prompted you to pick the fall of the Berlin Wall as the backdrop for your thriller?

From The Daily Beast

With Thriller, we took 800 songs and whittled them down to nine.

From The Daily Beast

He believed American audiences were ready for a thriller set in Africa.

From The Daily Beast

Nowadays almost every fictionist of account produces one good thriller at least of this sort.

From Project Gutenberg

It happened the very next day, beginning with a circumstance which made Tom feel indeed like a hero in a cheap thriller.

From Project Gutenberg

So for a number of years the parachute was little heard of, except as a “thriller” at country fairs.

From Project Gutenberg

Before the week ended I had written another thriller and this, too, was accepted.

From Project Gutenberg

If she only could write scenarios, what a thriller this would make!

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• anxiety
• apprehension
• confusion
• doubt
• insecurity
• tension
• uncertainty