What Is Suspense? Definition And Usage Of This Term
WHAT IS SUSPENSE – In this topic, we will first know the definition of this term and how is this term used in sentences.
Definition
The Oxford Dictionary defines the term as the following:
- a state or feeling of excited or anxious uncertainty about what may happen.
- a quality in a work of fiction that arouses excited expectation or uncertainty about what may happen.
- the temporary cessation or suspension of something
On the other hand, the Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines this term as the following:
- mental uncertainty
- pleasant excitement as to a decision or outcome
- the state or character of being undecided or doubtful
Synonyms
Here are some of the following synonyms of this term:
- eagerly
- agog
- all agog
- with bated breath
- on tenterhooks
- tension
- uncertainty
- doubt
- doubtfulness
- anticipation
Etymology
It is a late Middle English term derived from the Old French suspens, which means ‘abeyance‘, which is then based on the Latin term suspensus ‘suspended, hovering, doubtful’,
Examples
Here are some of the examples:
- Between the date of these letters and the day of her execution well nigh three months of suspense elapsed.
- In some cases suspense of judgment seems necessary even from the standpoint of Christian faith.
- Many of the arguments by which the Sceptics enforced their ad vocacy of a suspense of judgment are antiquated in type, but many also are, within the limits of the individualistic theory of knowledge, quite unanswerable.
- From the subjectivist point of view, which is manifestly fundamental through most of this, such arguments suasory of the Pyrrhonist suspense of judgment (i ro X i i) are indeed hard to answer.
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