Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A melodramatic serial in which each episode ends in suspense.
- n. A suspenseful situation occurring at the end of a chapter, scene, or episode.
- n. A contest so closely matched that the outcome is uncertain until the end.
Wiktionary
- n. narratology An ending or stopping point calculated to leave a story unresolved, in order to create suspense.
- n. by extension An outcome which is awaited with keen anticipation, especially one which is delayed for a period of time or which is not known until the last minute.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. a contest whose outcome is uncertain up to the very end.
- n. an episode of a drama that ends in suspense.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a contest whose outcome is uncertain up to the very end
- n. an episode that ends in suspense
Etymologies
- From cliff + hanger, evoking the image of someone left hanging from a cliff, thereby having an uncertain fate. (Wiktionary)
Examples
“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.”
“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.”
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“Oh, and Mike getting married — though in cliffhanger fashion, we don't know to whom.”
“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).”
“I was interested to see how they handled the cliffhanger from the end of last season.”
“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.”
“The cliffhanger is good, but not aggravating the way some books are.”
“The cliffhanger is similarly typical: how will Haruna and Yoh handle being separated by their college choices?”
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“In fact Turnabout is also a conclusion to a cliffhanger from the previous book, which is still available and for a decent price.”
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“Tom thursday's episode was great the cliffhanger is going to have do with michael and jan, i suspect jan will be pregnant”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘cliffhanger’.
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Words that are also movies
Unabashedly stolen from a comment made by courier12.
vertigo, serendipity, casablanca, psycho, jaws, fantasia, stagecoach, network, rocky, giant, platoon, unforgiven and 285 more...
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11184 more...
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WF - nominal compounds (figurative)
An extensive list I have been working on for quite some time. Feel free to add more of the kind if you miss any.
brainstorming, upside, downside, goldplating, bikeshedding, mudslinging, downgrading, headhunter, streamlining, mainstreaming, gerrymandering, frontloading and 503 more...
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Idioms, euphemisms, etc.
deep-six, cut to the chase, to feel one's oats, raison d'être, shag, total snooze, to lash out, corner stone, to put out, butt out, brownnoser, cliffhanger and 2 more...
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And another
retrocausality, brusque, gainsay, cheerio, jaundiced, chamois, caw, craw, fudge, bubbler, shebang, bolo and 244 more...
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kewpid's Words
moleskine, araldite, dessicate, cellar door, grotesque, fallacy, vendetta, raindrop, panacea, ethereal, hircus, treppenwitz and 446 more...
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Just 'cause I like 'em, C
cryptoxanthin, convent, calcar, chuckle, campanile, covet, complexion, campestral, chirography, counterscarp, caliginous, catabolism and 722 more...
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Amusing words
interesting words
bonce, furcate, tapioca, tillage, desalinate, garish, litmus, roadhog, azoic, haberdasher, imbroglio, polliwog and 802 more...
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working list
overkill, premonition, discombobulation, golliwogs, guerilla, paraphernalia, banter, gambit, atonement, leeway, ingenuity, haberdashery and 164 more...
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INSPIRATION ON STICK
words who inspires me on some projects
bridge to nowhere, malison, counting to infinity, butterfly effect, historical revisi..., antichrist, nouveau riche, soubrette, stendhal syndrome, bovarysme, faster, pussycat!..., groupies and 71 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for cliffhanger.
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