How to pronounce cliffhanger
American English pronunciation
KLIF-hang-ur
- IPA
- /ˈklɪfˌhæŋɚ/
- Syllables
- KLIF · hang · ur (3 syllables, stress on the 1st)
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What cliffhanger means
A story ending that leaves you wondering what will happen next
In a sentence: The chapter ended on a cliffhanger, so I begged to read one more.
Where it comes from: Old stories were often printed in parts, and a part might end with someone hanging off a cliff. The word is thought to come from a story like that by Thomas Hardy in the 1870s.
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