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View synonyms for cliffhanger

cliffhanger

or cliff-hang·er

[ klif-hang-er ]

noun

  1. a melodramatic or adventure serial in which each installment ends in suspense in order to interest the reader or viewer in the next installment.
  2. a single installment in such a serial.
  3. a suspenseful movie, novel, etc.
  4. the suspenseful ending itself.
  5. a situation or contest of which the outcome is suspensefully uncertain up to the very last moment:

    The game was a cliffhanger, but our team finally won.



cliffhanger

/ ˈklɪfˌhæŋə /

noun

    1. a situation of imminent disaster usually occurring at the end of each episode of a serialized film
    2. the serialized film itself
  1. a situation that is dramatic or uncertain


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Derived Forms

  • ˈcliffˌhanging, adjective

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Word History and Origins

Origin of cliffhanger1

An Americanism dating back to 1935–40

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Example Sentences

It’s also simply a twisty, fast-paced, action-packed show whose episodes end in killer cliffhangers—in other words, the ultimate binge bait.

From Time

Read moreThe crucial ballots that ended slavery in MarylandThe vote was a cliffhanger, and in the end, 375 absentee ballots cast by soldiers made the difference.

Part one of Lupin ended with a cliffhanger, and part two begins in the immediate aftermath.

From Time

A cliffhanger that could’ve been resolved within the first episode of Part 2 instead takes twice as long to wrap up.

From Time

Sometimes the McDonald’s commercials of the ’80s had entire narrative arcs, with recurring characters and cliffhangers.

From Eater

Why not finish hard on a cliffhanger and the next one just jump straight back in?

We hit the ground running after an end-of-season cliffhanger.

What a monumental cliffhanger to get us excited for the last episode.

And, maddeningly, “A” ended on a cliffhanger, just as a potentially explosive confrontation was about to go down.

The best thing to happen to it was the aborting of the third season, which effectively ended the series in a cliffhanger.

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