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, 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.

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.
   • 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, London: […] [John Macock] for H[enry] 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.

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

• in suspense
• suspense account
• suspenseful

Descendants

• → French: suspense
• → Korean: 서스펜스 (seoseupenseu)
• → Polish: suspens

Translations

condition of being suspended

• Arabic: إِيقَاف m (ʔīqāf), تَوْقِيف m (tawqīf)
• Bulgarian: временно прекратяване (vremenno prekratjavane)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 悬疑 (zh) (xuányí)

• Finnish: jännitys (fi)
• French: suspension (fr) f
• German: Hängen (de) n
• Occitan: suspension (oc) f
• Spanish: suspensión (es) f
• Tagalog: pagkaalip-ip

pleasurable emotion of anticipation and excitement

• Arabic: تَشْوِيق (ar) m (tašwīq)
• 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
• Māori: poho tārewa, pohopā
• Occitan: suspens (oc) m
• Polish: suspens (pl) m, suspensja f
• Russian: напряже́ние (ru) n (naprjažénije), напряжённое ожида́ние n (naprjažónnoje ožidánije), саспе́нс (ru) m (saspéns)
• Spanish: suspense m, suspenso (es) m
• 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
• Māori: tokopā, tokopaha
• Occitan: ànsia (oc) f
• Spanish: suspense m, angustia (es) f

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], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]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.

2. (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 […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]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

• 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

Galician

Etymology

From French suspense, from English suspense.

Noun

suspense m (plural suspenses)

1. suspense
2. thriller

Italian

Etymology

Borrowed from English suspense.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈsas.pens/, /susˈpans/, /sysˈpans/
• Rhymes: -aspens, -ans

Noun

suspense f (invariable)

1. suspense (all senses)

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.

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.sɨ/

• Hyphenation: sus‧pen‧se

Noun

suspense m (plural suspenses)

1. suspense (the excited anticipation of an outcome)
3. (fiction) thriller (genre of fiction)

   Synonym: thriller

Further reading

• “suspense”, in Dicionário Aulete Digital (in Portuguese), Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon Editora Digital, 2008–2026
• “suspense”, in Dicionário infopédia da Lingua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Porto: Porto Editora, 2003–2026
• “suspense”, in Michaelis Dicionário Brasileiro da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), São Paulo: Editora Melhoramentos, 2015–2026, →ISBN
• “suspense”, in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Lisbon: Priberam, 2008–2026

Spanish

Etymology

Borrowed from French suspense, from English suspense.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /susˈpense/ [susˈpẽn.se], /suˈpens/ [suˈpẽns]
• Rhymes: -ense, -ens
• 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 [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8.1, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 15 December 2025