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thriller

UK/ˈθɹɪ.lə/US/ˈθɹɪ.ləɹ/
nounB1+Common in everyday speech and writing · #7,279 of 15,258mostly written

Other forms: thrillers

A thriller is a story built on suspense and danger. A political thriller, a page-turning thriller, a thriller writer.

It differs from a mystery in where the tension sits: a mystery asks who did it, while a thriller asks whether the hero will get there in time. Legal, spy and psychological are the usual subtypes.

Definitions of thriller

  1. 1nounthrillerA story built on suspense and danger.B1+

    “I stayed up all night reading a thriller about a spy on the run.”

thriller is a story.

Where it comes from

From thrill + -er.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practise this word

thriller in the wild

  • The Silence of the Lambs is a 1991 American psychological horror thriller film directed by Jonathan Demme and written by Ted Tally, adapted from Thomas Harris's 1988 novel.

    The Silence of the Lambs (film)

  • A thriller generally keeps its audience on the "edge of their seats" as the plot builds towards a climax.

    Thriller (genre)

  • The films of Alfred Hitchcock are critical in the development of the thriller film during the mid-20th century.

    Thriller (genre)

  • Basic Instinct is a 1992 erotic thriller mystery film directed by Paul Verhoeven and written by Joe Eszterhas.

    Basic Instinct

  • Psychological thriller is a genre combining the thriller and psychological fiction genres.

    Psychological thriller

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.