Cliffhanger

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /ˌklɪfˈhæŋ.ə(ɹ)/

Definitions

1. A narrative ending that leaves the outcome uncertain, forcing the audience to wait for a future installment to discover the resolution
2. A dramatic or suspenseful conclusion that deliberately withholds resolution to compel continued engagement with future episodes or installments
3. An unresolved concluding moment in storytelling that creates anticipation by leaving crucial plot elements uncertain until subsequent releases

Etymology: The image at the heart of this word is literal: a man dangling over a drop with no way to tell whether he will be saved. Thomas Hardy's serialized novel A Pair of Blue Eyes, published in Tinsley's Magazine in the 1870s, ended one instalment with the character Henry Knight hanging from a cliff edge, leaving readers to wait for the next issue to learn his fate. The scene drew on something Hardy knew personally. His wife Emma, as a girl, had rescued a school friend who was in a similar position. The construction itself is plain: "cliff" and "hanger," the latter being something that hangs, combined into a single compound. The sense of an unresolved moment deliberately held back for the next episode grew directly out of that scene, so the word moved from a picture of a man in peril to a name for any story that stops at the worst moment.

Synonyms: suspense, dramatic ending, exciting conclusion, tension