suspense

suspense
    n 1: apprehension about what is going to happen
    2: an uncertain cognitive state; "the matter remained in
       suspense for several years"
    3: excited anticipation of an approaching climax; "the play kept
       the audience in suspense"
    

Suspense \Sus*pense"\, a. [F. suspens, L. suspensus, p. p. of
   suspendere. See {Suspend}.]
   1. Held or lifted up; held or prevented from proceeding.
      [Obs.]
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            [The great light of day] suspense in heaven.
                                                  --Milton.
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   2. Expressing, or proceeding from, suspense or doubt. [Obs.]
      "Expectation held his look suspense." --Milton.
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Suspense \Sus*pense"\, n. [From F. suspens, a. See {Suspense},
   a.]
   1. The state of being suspended; specifically, a state of
      uncertainty and expectation, with anxiety or apprehension;
      indetermination; indecision; as, the suspense of a person
      waiting for the verdict of a jury.
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            Ten days the prophet in suspense remained. --Denham.
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            Upon the ticklish balance of suspense. --Cowper.
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   2. Cessation for a time; stop; pause.
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            A cool suspense from pleasure and from pain. --Pope.
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   3. [Cf. F. suspense.] (Law) A temporary cessation of one's
      right; suspension, as when the rent or other profits of
      land cease by unity of possession of land and rent.
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   {Suspense account} (Bookkeeping), an account in which
      receipts or disbursements are temporarily entered until
      their proper position in the books is determined.
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SUSPENSE. When a rent, profit a prendre, and the like, are, in consequence 
of the unity of possession of the rent, &c., of the land out of which they 
issue, not in esse for a time, they are said to be in suspense, tunc 
dormiunt, but they may be revived or awakened. Co, Litt. 313 a. 
    

124 Moby Thesaurus words for "suspense":
      abeyance, agitation, all-overs, angst, anticipation, anxiety,
      anxiety hysteria, anxiety neurosis, anxious bench, anxious concern,
      anxious seat, anxiousness, apathy, apprehension, apprehensiveness,
      cankerworm of care, capriciousness, care, catalepsy, catatonia,
      chance, chanciness, changeableness, cliff-hanging, concern,
      concernment, danglement, dangling, deadliness, deathliness,
      dependence, dependency, disquiet, disquietude, distress,
      disturbance, dormancy, doubt, dread, entropy, erraticism,
      erraticness, excitement, expectancy, expectant waiting,
      expectation, fear, fickleness, foreboding, forebodingness, hanging,
      hesitancy, hesitation, incalculability, incertitude, indecision,
      indecisiveness, indefiniteness, indemonstrability, indeterminacy,
      indetermination, indeterminism, indifference, indolence, inertia,
      inertness, inquietude, insecurity, irresolution, languor, latency,
      lotus-eating, luck, malaise, misgiving, moratorium, nervous strain,
      nervous tension, nervousness, overanxiety, passiveness, passivity,
      pendency, pendulosity, pendulousness, pensileness, pensility,
      perturbation, pessimism, pins and needles, pucker, randomness,
      solicitude, stagnancy, stagnation, stasis, stew, strain,
      suspensefulness, suspension, tension, torpor, trouble,
      unaccountability, uncertainness, uncertainty,
      uncertainty principle, undecidedness, undeterminedness, uneasiness,
      unforeseeableness, unpredictability, unprovability, unquietness,
      unsureness, unverifiability, upset, vacillation, vegetation,
      vexation, vis inertiae, waiting, whimsicality, zeal