suspense

suspense — noun

1. a pleasant feeling of worry and excitement that people feel when they are waitin

1.nounB2
Definition

a pleasant feeling of worry and excitement that people feel when they are waiting to find out what will happen, especially in a story, film, or real-life situation with an unknown result

Example

The film's final scene left the audience in suspense until the very last shot.

in suspense — set phrase describing the state of anxious waiting

Quinn could not stand the suspense any longer and opened the letter.

Common collocations
  • in suspense
  • keep / hold someone in suspense
  • suspense builds / mounts / grows
  • break the suspense
  • a feeling / sense / moment of suspense
  • full of suspense
Synonyms
  • tension

    a strained feeling that can come from conflict or pressure; more negative and less focused on uncertainty

  • anticipation

    excitement about something expected; lacks the worry or nervousness of suspense

  • uncertainty

    a neutral mental state of not knowing; has no emotional charge of excitement

Antonyms
  • certainty

    the state of knowing what will happen, the opposite of the unknown that creates suspense

  • relief

    the feeling that comes when the waiting is over and the outcome is known

Grammar Patterns

in suspense

keep / hold someone in suspense

suspense + verb (builds / mounts / grows)

the suspense of [noun phrase]

Usage Note

Frequently appears in the fixed phrase 'in suspense' to describe a person's mental state while waiting. The verb collocations 'build', 'mount', and 'grow' are typical with suspense as the subject, especially in descriptions of stories or films.

Common Mistakes

I felt very suspense when the door opened.
I felt a lot of suspense when the door opened.
'suspense' is a noun, not an adjective; use the adjective 'suspenseful' for describing things (e.g., 'a suspenseful scene').

Word family

  • suspenseful
    adjectiveB2
  • suspensefully
    adverbC1
  • suspension
    nounB2

Synonym discussion

Sense: noun/1

Suspense combines the thrill of not knowing with an emotional charge of both excitement and worry. Tension is a broader term describing a strained, tight feeling that can arise from conflict, danger, or pressure — it does not require an unknown outcome. Anticipation is more purely positive: you look forward to something you expect, with little or no nervousness. Uncertainty is a cold, intellectual state of doubt, lacking the emotional engagement of suspense. Anxiety is heavily negative, suggesting fear or distress rather than the enjoyable kind of nervous waiting that suspense describes. In a thriller film, you feel suspense; in a heated argument, you feel tension; before a birthday party, you feel anticipation; when the exam date is unannounced, you feel uncertainty; before a medical test, you feel anxiety.

tension ↗anticipationuncertainty ↗anxiety ↗

Common collocations

Nouns

Phrases

  • in suspense
  • keep someone in suspense
  • full of suspense
  • break the suspense

Prepositions

Etymology

LatinFrenchEnglish

From Latin 'suspendere' (to hang up, suspend), via Old French 'suspens' and Anglo-Norman. The original meaning was a state of being suspended or temporarily stopped — like a legal case left undecided. By the 1600s, the word had developed its modern emotional sense: the feeling of being mentally 'hung' between possible outcomes, not yet knowing the result.