Noun

(en noun)

Something that thrills.

*{{quote-news

, year=2012 , date=December 29 , author=Paul Doyle , title=Arsenal's Theo Walcott hits hat-trick in thrilling victory over Newcastle , work=The Guardian citation , page= , passage=While Arsenal had enjoyed a Boxing Day break thanks to the cancellation of their game against West Ham, Newcastle had come out of the wrong end of a thriller at Old Trafford and Pardew said that strain accounted for his side conceding four goals at the Emirates after Demba Ba had drawn Newcastle level for the third time in the 69th minute.}}

(chiefly) A suspenseful, sensational genre of story, book, play or film.

Noun

(en noun)

(narratology) An ending or stopping point calculated to leave a story unresolved, in order to create suspense.

* 2007 , Hilary Hylton, " Filming Texas in a Good Light," Time , 2 Jul.:

Back in the early 80s, the hit series Dallas kept the nation guessing with its season-ending cliffhanger "Who Shot J.R.?"

(by extension) An outcome which is awaited with keen anticipation, especially one which is delayed for a period of time or which is not known until the last minute.

* 2008 , Timothy Garton Ash, " Russia has run rings round the west," Guardian (UK), 28 Feb. (retrieved 2 Feb. 2009):

This presidential election is such a cliffhanger . Will it be the rising star Dmitry "Obamovich" Medvedev? Or the veteran Gennady "McCainovich" Zyuganov?