Ellipsis

This article is about the punctuation mark. For the syntactic omission of words, see Ellipsis (linguistics). For other uses, see Ellipsis (disambiguation).
"..." redirects here. For other uses, see Three dots (disambiguation).
Not to be confused with Ellipse.

…
Ellipsis
U+2026 … HORIZONTAL ELLIPSIS (…, …)
... . . . ⋯ ⋮
AP format Chicago format Mid-line ellipsis Vertical ellipsis

The ellipsis (/əˈlɪpsɪs/, plural ellipses; from Ancient Greek: ἔλλειψις, élleipsis, lit. 'leave out'[1]), rendered ..., alternatively described as suspension points[2]: 19 /dots, points[2]: 19 /periods of ellipsis, or ellipsis points,[2]: 19  or colloquially, dot-dot-dot,[not verified in body][3][4] is a punctuation mark consisting of a series of three dots. An ellipsis can be used in many ways, such as for intentional omission of text or numbers, to imply a concept without using words.[1] Style guides differ on how to render an ellipsis in printed material.

  1. ^ a b "ellipsis". Oxford English Dictionary. Lexico.com. Archived from the original on 14 July 2020. Retrieved 13 July 2020.
  2. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster's Manual for Writers and Editors. Merriam-Webster. 1998. ISBN 978-0-87779-622-0. Retrieved 16 October 2024.
  3. ^ Toner, Anne (2015). Ellipsis in English Literature: Signs of Omission. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. p. 151.. According to Toner it is difficult to establish when the "dot dot dot" phrase was first used. There is an early instance, which is perhaps the first in a piece of fiction, in Virginia Woolf's short story "An Unwritten Novel" (1920).
  4. ^ Source for suspension: Trask, Larry (1997). "Quotation Marks and Direct Quotations". Guide to Puntuation [sic.] Department of Informatics, University of Sussex. Retrieved 1 January 2024.[not verified in body]