ellipsis

American  

[ih-lip-sis] / ɪˈlɪp sɪs /

noun

• ellipses
  plural

1. Grammar.

   1. the omission from a sentence or other construction of one or more words that would complete or clarify the construction, as the omission of who are, while I am, or while we are from I like to interview people sitting down.

   2. the omission of one or more items from a construction in order to avoid repeating the identical or equivalent items that are in a preceding or following construction, as the omission of been to Paris from the second clause of I've been to Paris, but they haven't.

2. Printing. a mark or marks as ——, …, or * * *, to indicate an omission or suppression of letters or words.

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ellipsis British  

/ ɪˈlɪpsɪs /

noun

1. Also called: eclipsis.  omission of parts of a word or sentence

2. printing a sequence of three dots (…) indicating an omission in text

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ellipsis Cultural  

1. A punctuation mark (…) used most often within quotations to indicate that something has been left out. For example, if we leave out parts of the above definition, it can read: “A punctuation mark (…) used most often … to indicate….”

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• ellipses
  plural

Etymology

Origin of ellipsis

First recorded in 1560–70; from Latin ellīpsis, from Greek élleipsis “omission,” from el- (variant of en- en- ² ) + leip-, stem of leípein “to leave” + -sis -sis

Explanation

An ellipsis is punctuation that is used to show where words have been left out. The ellipsis is usually formed by three periods (four if the ellipsis comes at the end of a sentence). The plural of ellipsis is…ellipses. See what we did there? In addition to indicating that words are missing, an ellipsis can say, “wait for it.” There’s a pause. The word ellipsis comes to English via a Greek word, elleipein, meaning to fall short or leave out. If you can’t remember the word ellipsis, you can always say “dot dot dot.”

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

ellipsis ellipses

Though the title jams everybody together in one breathless, unpunctuated rush, this is very much a movie about distance within families; an ellipsis between each word might have been apt.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 24, 2025

Roberts created it with an ellipsis that edited out the actual law and created what can only be seen as a deliberate misapplication of precedent.

From Salon ● Oct. 15, 2025

Akil laughs when I bring it up: “At any age, that ellipsis will kick your butt.”

From Los Angeles Times ● May 9, 2025

At the renovated and rebranded Center for Brooklyn History, they’re going with an ellipsis.

From New York Times ● Sep. 15, 2023

Here we have an adverb, unproblematically, modifying the verb continue, an ellipsis for continue to be.

From "The Sense of Style" by Steven Pinker

Not to give anything away, but anyone who’s survived their youth will understand that the title is ironic — or, with Blume’s ellipses, reattached for the title of the final episode, at least inconclusive.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 8, 2025

In the simulations the researchers observed ellipses, triangles and squares.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 23, 2023

“Masterpiece” then pans very slowly — with lots of emphatic italics, arch ellipses and a few footnotes — over the full arc of the fake movie’s development.

From New York Times ● May 7, 2023

Once you have the app, open the desktop version of Twitter and click on the icon showing ellipses in a circle.

From Seattle Times ● Nov. 18, 2022

As far as Kepler was concerned, elliptical orbits were merely an ad hoc hypothesis, and a rather repugnant one at that, because ellipses were clearly less perfect than circles.

From "A Brief History of Time: And Other Essays" by Stephen Hawking