Dinkus

Not to be confused with dingus or dingbat.
Asterisms in use
Three asterisks used as a dinkus in the James Huneker novel Painted Veils. In this case, it is being used to accentuate the end of a particularly racy chapter, priming the reader for the change in tone.
<?>
This article contains uncommon Unicode characters. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of the intended characters.

In typography, a dinkus is a typographic symbol which often consists of three spaced asterisks or bullets in a horizontal row, i.e.   ∗ ∗ ∗   or   • • •  . The symbol has a variety of uses, and it usually denotes an intentional omission or a logical "break" of varying degree in a written work. This latter use is similar to a subsection, and it indicates to the reader that the subsequent text should be re-contextualized. When used this way, the dinkus typically appears centrally aligned on a line of its own with vertical spacing before and after the symbol. The dinkus has been in use in various forms since c. 1850.[1][2] Historically, the dinkus was often represented as an asterism, ⁂, though this use has fallen out of favor and is now nearly obsolete.[3]

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference Grammar Book was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference Shady Punctuation was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Peško, Radim; Lüthi, Louis (2007). Bailey, Stuart; Bilak, Peter (eds.). Dot Dot Dot 13. Princeton Architectural Press. p. 193. ISBN 978-90-77620-07-6.[full citation needed]