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suspense. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
suspense, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
suspense in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
suspense you have here. The definition of the word
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English
Etymology
From Middle English suspense, suspence, from Anglo-Norman suspens (as in en suspens) and Old French suspens, from Latin suspēnsus.
Pronunciation
Noun
suspense (usually uncountable, plural suspenses)
- The condition of being suspended; cessation for a time.
1717, Alexander Pope, Eloisa to Abelard, lines 249–252; republished in The Complete Poetical Works of Alexander Pope, Boston, New York: Houghton, Mifflin and Company, 1902, page 113:For thee the Fates, severely kind, ordain / A cool suspense from pleasure and from pain; / Thy life a long dead calm of fix'd repose; / No pulse that riots, and no blood that glows.
- the pleasurable emotion of anticipation and excitement regarding the outcome or climax of a book, film etc.
- The unpleasant emotion of anxiety or apprehension in an uncertain situation.
1636 (date written), John Denham, “The Destruction of Troy, an Essay upon the Second Book of Virgils Æneis”, in Poems and Translations, with The Sophy, 4th edition, London: for H Herringman , published 1668, →OCLC:Ten days the prophet in suspense remain'd.
1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. , volume I, London: Henry Colburn, , →OCLC, pages 265–266:I believe that, to the young, suspense is the most intolerable suffering. Active misery always brings with it its own power of endurance.
- (law) A temporary cessation of one's right; suspension, as when the rent or other profits of land cease by unity of possession of land and rent.
- (US, military) A deadline.
- She sent us that assignment with a suspense of noon tomorrow.
Derived terms
Translations
condition of being suspended
pleasurable emotion of anticipation and excitement
unpleasant emotion of anxiety or apprehension
Adjective
suspense (not comparable)
- (obsolete) Held or lifted up; held or prevented from proceeding.
1667, John Milton, “Book VII”, in Paradise Lost. , London: [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker ; nd by Robert Boulter ; nd Matthias Walker, , →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: , London: Basil Montagu Pickering , 1873, →OCLC:[The great light of day] suspens in heav'n.
- (obsolete) Expressing, or proceeding from, suspense or doubt.
1667, John Milton, “Book II”, in Paradise Lost. , London: [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker ; nd by Robert Boulter ; nd Matthias Walker, , →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: , London: Basil Montagu Pickering , 1873, →OCLC:Expectation held his look suspense.
French
Etymology 1
Nominalisation of the feminine form of suspens.
Pronunciation
Noun
suspense f (plural suspenses)
- suspense (state of being suspended)
Etymology 2
Borrowed from English suspense, itself from Old French suspense. Doublet of suspens.
Pronunciation
Noun
suspense m (plural suspenses)
- suspense (emotion; feeling)
Cet acteur a joué dans plusieurs films à suspense.- This actor played in a lot of thrillers.
Further reading
Galician
Etymology
From French suspense, from English suspense.
Noun
suspense m (plural suspenses)
- suspense
- thriller
Italian
Etymology
Borrowed from English suspense.
Pronunciation
Noun
suspense f (invariable)
- suspense (all senses)
References
Latin
Participle
suspēnse
- vocative masculine singular of suspēnsus
References
- “suspense”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
- suspense in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
Portuguese
Etymology
Borrowed from English suspense.
Pronunciation
Noun
suspense m (plural suspenses)
- suspense (the excited anticipation of an outcome)
- (fiction) thriller (a suspenseful, sensational genre of fiction)
Spanish
Etymology
Borrowed from French suspense, from English suspense.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /susˈpense/
- Rhymes: -ense
- Syllabification: sus‧pen‧se
Noun
suspense m (plural suspenses)
- (Spain) suspense
- Synonym: (Latin America) suspenso
- thriller
Derived terms
Further reading