Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A melodramatic serial in which each episode ends in suspense.
- noun A suspenseful situation occurring at the end of a chapter, scene, or episode.
- noun A contest so closely matched that the outcome is uncertain until the end.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun a contest whose outcome is uncertain up to the very end.
- noun an episode of a drama that ends in suspense.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun narratology An
ending orstopping point calculated to leave astory unresolved, in order to createsuspense . - noun by extension An
outcome which isawaited withkeen anticipation , especially one which isdelayed for a period of time or which is not known until thelast minute .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun a contest whose outcome is uncertain up to the very end
- noun an episode that ends in suspense
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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The cliffhanger is good, but not aggravating the way some books are.
Archive 2010-03-01 2010
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The cliffhanger is similarly typical: how will Haruna and Yoh handle being separated by their college choices?
Shojo Beat: Nana 20, Love*Com 15, High School Debut 12 » Manga Worth Reading 2010
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I was interested to see how they handled the cliffhanger from the end of last season.
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The cliffhanger is good, but not aggravating the way some books are.
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I was interested to see how they handled the cliffhanger from the end of last season.
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The show temporarily becomes Seattle Medical: Road to Recovery, with sensational teasers amid other infotainment hoopla, as hand-held cameras follow the doctors along the usual rounds of triumph (a double arm transplant, a regenerative trachea procedure in the pediatrics ward) and tragedy (Mandy Moore, from the shoot-em-up cliffhanger, is back, but goes into an irreversible coma after Bailey's routine op).
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At the end of the first issue, the cliffhanger is that the reader learns that Marty plans to get Gary killed if that is what it will take to get rid of Agent Orange.
Superhero Nation: how to write superhero novels and comic books » How to Write a Novel Synopsis 2009
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He gets a lot further into the story than I expected him to and ends at a much more compelling moment than the cliffhanger from the novel that I thought he'd pick.
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Oh, and Mike getting married — though in cliffhanger fashion, we don't know to whom.
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It continues in The Fall of Hyperion, but the cliffhanger is so sharp and unexpected, and the ending so silly and jarring, that I almost feel like it will be difficult to begin the next book.
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