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cliffhanger
[ klif-hang-er ]
noun
- a melodramatic or adventure serial in which each installment ends in suspense in order to interest the reader or viewer in the next installment.
- a single installment in such a serial.
- a suspenseful movie, novel, etc.
- the suspenseful ending itself.
- 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
- a situation of imminent disaster usually occurring at the end of each episode of a serialized film
- the serialized film itself
- a situation that is dramatic or uncertain
Derived Forms
- ˈcliffˌhanging, adjective
Word History and Origins
Origin of cliffhanger1
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.
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.
A cliffhanger that could’ve been resolved within the first episode of Part 2 instead takes twice as long to wrap up.
Sometimes the McDonald’s commercials of the ’80s had entire narrative arcs, with recurring characters and cliffhangers.
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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