# 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: /səˈspɛns/
* Rhymes: -ɛns

### 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: […] [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.
* (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

* in suspense
* suspense account
* suspenseful

#### Translations
### 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 […]; [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.
* (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: /sys.pɑ̃s/

#### 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

* IPA: /sys.pɛns/
* Audio:(file)

#### 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

* “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)
* suspense
* thriller

## Italian
### Etymology

Borrowed from English suspense.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /ˈsa.spens/, /suˈspans/, /syˈspans/
* Rhymes: -aspens, -ans

### Noun

suspense f (invariable)
* suspense (all senses)

### References

* ↑ suspense in Luciano Canepari, Dizionario di Pronuncia Italiana (DiPI)

## 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

* (Brazil) IPA: /susˈpẽ.si/
* (Brazil) IPA: /susˈpẽ.si/
** (Rio de Janeiro) IPA: /suʃˈpẽ.si/
** (Southern Brazil) IPA: /susˈpẽ.se/
* (Portugal) IPA: /suʃˈpɐ̃.sɨ/
* Hyphenation: sus‧pen‧se

### 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: /susˈpense/ [susˈpẽn.se]
* Rhymes: -ense
* Syllabification: sus‧pen‧se

### Noun

suspense m (plural suspenses)
* (Spain) suspense
    Synonym: (Latin America) suspenso
* 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, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 2024 December 10