NOUN (3)

1. apprehension about what is going to happen;

2. an uncertain cognitive state;
- Example: "the matter remained in suspense for several years"

3. excited anticipation of an approaching climax;
- Example: "the play kept the audience in suspense"

The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Suspense \Sus*pense"\, a. [F. suspens, L. suspensus, p. p. of
   suspendere. See Suspend.]
   1. Held or lifted up; held or prevented from proceeding.
      [Obs.]
      [1913 Webster]

            [The great light of day] suspense in heaven.
                                                  --Milton.
      [1913 Webster]

   2. Expressing, or proceeding from, suspense or doubt. [Obs.]
      "Expectation held his look suspense." --Milton.
      [1913 Webster]

The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Suspense \Sus*pense"\, n. [From F. suspens, a. See Suspense,
   a.]
   1. The state of being suspended; specifically, a state of
      uncertainty and expectation, with anxiety or apprehension;
      indetermination; indecision; as, the suspense of a person
      waiting for the verdict of a jury.
      [1913 Webster]

            Ten days the prophet in suspense remained. --Denham.
      [1913 Webster]

            Upon the ticklish balance of suspense. --Cowper.
      [1913 Webster]

   2. Cessation for a time; stop; pause.
      [1913 Webster]

            A cool suspense from pleasure and from pain. --Pope.
      [1913 Webster]

   3. [Cf. F. suspense.] (Law) A temporary cessation of one's
      right; suspension, as when the rent or other profits of
      land cease by unity of possession of land and rent.
      [1913 Webster]

   Suspense account (Bookkeeping), an account in which
      receipts or disbursements are temporarily entered until
      their proper position in the books is determined.
      [1913 Webster]

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):

suspense
    n 1: apprehension about what is going to happen
    2: an uncertain cognitive state; "the matter remained in
       suspense for several years"
    3: excited anticipation of an approaching climax; "the play kept
       the audience in suspense"

Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:

124 Moby Thesaurus words for "suspense":
   abeyance, agitation, all-overs, angst, anticipation, anxiety,
   anxiety hysteria, anxiety neurosis, anxious bench, anxious concern,
   anxious seat, anxiousness, apathy, apprehension, apprehensiveness,
   cankerworm of care, capriciousness, care, catalepsy, catatonia,
   chance, chanciness, changeableness, cliff-hanging, concern,
   concernment, danglement, dangling, deadliness, deathliness,
   dependence, dependency, disquiet, disquietude, distress,
   disturbance, dormancy, doubt, dread, entropy, erraticism,
   erraticness, excitement, expectancy, expectant waiting,
   expectation, fear, fickleness, foreboding, forebodingness, hanging,
   hesitancy, hesitation, incalculability, incertitude, indecision,
   indecisiveness, indefiniteness, indemonstrability, indeterminacy,
   indetermination, indeterminism, indifference, indolence, inertia,
   inertness, inquietude, insecurity, irresolution, languor, latency,
   lotus-eating, luck, malaise, misgiving, moratorium, nervous strain,
   nervous tension, nervousness, overanxiety, passiveness, passivity,
   pendency, pendulosity, pendulousness, pensileness, pensility,
   perturbation, pessimism, pins and needles, pucker, randomness,
   solicitude, stagnancy, stagnation, stasis, stew, strain,
   suspensefulness, suspension, tension, torpor, trouble,
   unaccountability, uncertainness, uncertainty,
   uncertainty principle, undecidedness, undeterminedness, uneasiness,
   unforeseeableness, unpredictability, unprovability, unquietness,
   unsureness, unverifiability, upset, vacillation, vegetation,
   vexation, vis inertiae, waiting, whimsicality, zeal



Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856):

SUSPENSE. When a rent, profit a prendre, and the like, are, in consequence
of the unity of possession of the rent, &c., of the land out of which they
issue, not in esse for a time, they are said to be in suspense, tunc
dormiunt, but they may be revived or awakened. Co, Litt. 313 a.