suspense

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   an uncertain cognitive state

   The matter remained in suspense for several years.

2. 2
   noun

   excited anticipation of an approaching climax

   The play kept the audience in suspense.

3. 3
   noun

   apprehension about what is going to happen

   We are waiting with great suspense to hear news from the doctors.

4. 4
   noun

   The condition of being suspended; cessation for a time.

   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.

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

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