suspense

What it means

1. uncountableusuallyThe condition of being suspended; cessation for a time.

   For thee the Fates, severely kind, ordain / A cool suspense from pleasure and from pain; / Thy life a long dead calm of fix'd repose; / No pulse that riots, and no blood that glows.

   1717, Alexander Pope, Eloisa to Abelard, lines 249–252; republished in The Complete Poetical Works of Alexander Pope, Boston, New York: Houghton, Mifflin and Company, 1902, page 113

2. uncountableusuallyThe pleasurable emotion of anticipation and excitement regarding the outcome or climax of a book, film etc.
3. uncountableusuallyThe unpleasant emotion of anxiety or apprehension in an uncertain situation.

   Ten days the prophet in suspense remain'd.

   1636 (date written), John Denham, “The Destruction of Troy, an Essay upon the Second Book of Virgils Æneis”, in Poems and Translations, with The Sophy, London: […] [John Macock] for H[enry] Herringman […], published 1668, →OCLC

   1 more example

   I believe that, to the young, suspense is the most intolerable suffering. Active misery always brings with it its own power of endurance.

   1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. […], volume I, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, pages 265–266

In a sentence

For thee the Fates, severely kind, ordain / A cool suspense from pleasure and from pain; / Thy life a long dead calm of fix'd repose; / No pulse that riots, and no blood that glows.

1717, Alexander Pope, Eloisa to Abelard, lines 249–252; republished in The Complete Poetical Works of Alexander Pope, Boston, New York: Houghton, Mifflin and Company, 1902, page 113

Where it comes from

1. Latinsuspēnsus
2. Old Frenchsuspens
3. Anglo-Normansuspens
4. Middle Englishsuspense
5. Englishsuspense

From Middle English suspense, suspence, from Anglo-Norman suspens (as in en suspens) and Old French suspens, from Latin suspēnsus.