thriller
Americannoun
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a person or thing that thrills.
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an exciting, suspenseful play or story, especially a mystery story.
noun
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a book, film, play, etc, depicting crime, mystery, or espionage in an atmosphere of excitement and suspense
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a person or thing that thrills
Discover More
In Great Britain, the word thriller is sometimes used for all mystery novels: “Martha Grimes, an American, writes British-style thrillers.”
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of thriller
1885–90; 1920–25 thriller for def. 2; thrill + -er 1
Explanation
A thriller is a suspenseful movie, TV show, book, or play. If you love thrillers, you probably enjoy mysterious plots, suspicious characters, and being on the edge of your seat. Thrillers are known for being exciting and sometimes scary, evoking emotions like anticipation, fear, and suspense. They tend to use plot twists and cliffhangers to keep an audience or reader intrigued, and they often feature a villain. The literary label thriller first appeared in the late 1800s, from the verb thrill, "give a shivering, excited feeling."
Vocabulary lists containing thriller
Literary Genres - Introductory
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Literary Genres - Advanced
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Reading: Literature - Literary Genres - Middle School
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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.
Industry analyst David A. Gross called the $44 million debut a "very good opening for an original sci-fi thriller."
From Barron's • Jun. 14, 2026
And it also, in literal meaning, it’s something used as part of a trap, which speaks to the spy thriller element to the show.
From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 11, 2026
Fast facts: The “E.T.” and “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” director Steven Spielberg revisits interplanetary life in this thriller starring Emily Blunt and Josh O’Connor as two strangers drawn together by their extraterrestrial experiences.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 6, 2026
Now, the Oscar-winning director is returning to that theme once again with Disclosure Day, a sci-fi thriller starring Emily Blunt, Josh O'Connor, Colman Domingo, Colin Firth and Eve Hewson.
From BBC • Jun. 4, 2026
She was also the technical advisor for the upcoming spy thriller Queen and Country, which is why the team was at Pinewood Studios just outside of London in the town of Iver Heath.
From "City Spies" by James Ponti
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.
