Definition of "cliffhanger" []

• A melodramatic serial in which each episode ends in suspense. (noun)
• A suspenseful situation occurring at the end of a chapter, scene, or episode. (noun)
• A contest so closely matched that the outcome is uncertain until the end. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "He gets a lot further into the story than I expected him to and ends at a much more compelling moment than the cliffhanger from the novel that I thought he'd pick."
• "At the end of the first issue, the cliffhanger is that the reader learns that Marty plans to get Gary killed if that is what it will take to get rid of Agent Orange."
• "Oh, and Mike getting married — though in cliffhanger fashion, we don't know to whom."