suspense

suspense

English

Alternative forms

• suspence (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English suspense, suspence, from Anglo-Norman suspens (as in en suspens) and Old French suspens, from Latin suspēnsus.

Pronunciation

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• IPA^(key): /səˈspɛns/
• Rhymes: -ɛns

Noun

suspense (usually uncountable, plural suspenses)

1. The condition of being suspended; cessation for a time.
   • 1717, Pope, Alexander, 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.

2. the pleasurable emotion of anticipation and excitement regarding the outcome or climax of a book, film etc.
3. The unpleasant emotion of anxiety or apprehension in an uncertain situation.
   • 1656, John Denham, The Destruction of Troy:

     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 21345056, 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.

4. (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.
5. (US, military) A deadline.

   She sent us that assignment with a suspense of noon tomorrow.

Derived terms

• suspenseful

Translations

condition of being suspended

Bulgarian: временно прекратяване (vremenno prekratjavane) Chinese: Mandarin: 悬疑 (zh) Finnish: jännitys (fi) French: suspension (fr) f German: Hängen (de) n Occitan: suspension (oc) f Tagalog: pagkaalip-ip

pleasurable emotion of anticipation and excitement

Bulgarian: напрегнатост (bg) f (napregnatost), очакване (bg) n (očakvane) Finnish: jännitys (fi) French: suspense (fr) m Galician: suspense (gl) German: Spannung (de) f Malay: saspens Occitan: suspens (oc) m Russian: напряже́ние (ru) n (naprjažénije), напряжённое ожида́ние n (naprjažónnoje ožidánije), саспе́нс (ru) m (saspéns) Spanish: suspense Swahili: taharuki (sw) Ukrainian: саспе́нс m (saspéns), напруга f (napruha)

unpleasant emotion of anxiety or apprehension

Bulgarian: неизвестност (bg) f (neizvestnost), несигурност (bg) f (nesigurnost) Finnish: jännitys (fi) French: angoisse (fr), anxiété (fr) f, appréhension (fr) f Galician: suspense (gl) German: Spannung (de) f, Anspannung (de) f Italian: trepidazione (it) f Malay: saspens Maori: tokopā, tokopaha Occitan: ànsia (oc) f Spanish: suspense

Adjective

suspense (not comparable)

1. (obsolete) Held or lifted up; held or prevented from proceeding.
   • 1667, John Milton, “Book VII”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […], OCLC 228722708; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, OCLC 230729554:

     [The great light of day] suspens in heav'n.

2. (obsolete) Expressing, or proceeding from, suspense or doubt.
   • 1667, John Milton, “Book II”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […], OCLC 228722708; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, OCLC 230729554:

     Expectation held his look suspense.

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French

Etymology 1

Nominalisation of the feminine form of suspens.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /sys.pɑ̃s/

Noun

suspense f (plural suspenses)

1. suspense (state of being suspended)

Etymology 2

Borrowed from English suspense, itself from Old French suspense. Doublet of suspens.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /sys.pɛns/

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

suspense m (plural suspenses)

1. suspense (emotion; feeling)

   Cet acteur a joué dans plusieurs films à suspense.

   This actor played in a lot of thrillers.

Further reading

• “suspense”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

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Galician

Etymology

From French suspense, from English suspense.

Noun

suspense m (plural suspenses)

1. suspense
2. thriller

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Italian

Etymology

Borrowed from English suspense.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈsa.spens/, /suˈspans/, /syˈspans/[1]
• Rhymes: -aspens, -ans

Noun

suspense f (invariable)

1. suspense (all senses)

References

1. suspense in Luciano Canepari, Dizionario di Pronuncia Italiana (DiPI)

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Latin

Participle

suspēnse

1. 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

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Portuguese

Etymology

Borrowed from English suspense.

Pronunciation

 

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /susˈpẽ.si/

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /susˈpẽ.si/
  • (Rio de Janeiro) IPA^(key): /suʃˈpẽ.si/
  • (Southern Brazil) IPA^(key): /susˈpẽ.se/

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /suʃˈpɐ̃.s(ɨ)/

• Hyphenation: sus‧pen‧se

Noun

suspense m (plural suspenses)

1. suspense (the excited anticipation of an outcome)
2. (fiction) thriller (a suspenseful, sensational genre of fiction)

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Spanish

Etymology

From French suspense, from English suspense.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /susˈpense/ [susˈpẽn.se]
• Rhymes: -ense
• Syllabification: sus‧pen‧se

Noun

suspense m (plural suspenses)

1. (Spain) suspense

   Synonym: (Latin America) suspenso

2. thriller

Derived terms

• novela de suspense (“thriller”) (novel genre)
• película de suspense (“thriller”) (film genre)

Further reading

• “suspense”, in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014