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Glite Dictionary
⏳ Causing suspense 🛑 Causing a delay
suspensive

suspensive

8.1
Making people feel uncertain and wait to see what happens
  • adjective
  • /səˈspɛnsɪv/
  • Literature
translation icon : suspensivo
  • As the storm clouds gathered, a suspensive atmosphere filled the air, making everyone anxious.

Examples

  • The author skillfully created a suspensive scene, leaving readers eager to find out what would happen next.

  • Literature attempts to lead to conclusions, even if they are suspensive or undecidable; it is an organized discourse that exchanges with the other, needs the response of the other, is discursive, and therefore passes through a temporality.

    Blog text (10)

  • The movie had a suspensive plot that kept the audience on the edge of their seats.

Synonyms

suspenseful
vssuspensive
17 4.8

Making you feel nervous and unsure about what will happen

emphasizes the act of causing that uncertainty rather than just describing it
nail-biting
vssuspensive
  • Informal
3 4.2

Making you feel very nervous and excited while you wait to see what happens

implies milder suspense and simple anticipation rather than strong anxiety
cliffhanging
vssuspensive
5.5

Causing strong suspense by leaving the result unknown

covers suspense more generally, not only by leaving outcomes unresolved
grippy
vssuspensive
  • UK
7.0

Exciting in a way that keeps you wanting to know more

focuses on causing uncertainty or anticipation rather than mere attention capture

Antonyms

certainty
  • Literature
202 3.4

A strong feeling that something is true or will happen

How Suspenseful

hair-raising
  • Informal
6 5.2
suspensive
  • Literature
8.1
tense
310 3.6
uneasy
98 3.2
calm
735 1.0

Surface Forms

suspensive positive

Morphology

suspensive = suspense (transparent) = suspense + ive

Clearly derived from the noun 'suspense' with the adjectival suffix '-ive' to mean causing or relating to suspense.

Etymology

Suspensive comes from the same root as suspend and suspense, built on the idea 'to hang' something so you must wait. So, a suspensive situation 'hangs' you in uncertainty and creates a feeling of suspense.