For the Figure of speech, see Ellipsis (figure of speech). For the similarly-named flattened-circle, see ellipse.

Ellipsis Έλλειψις (plural: ellipses ελλείψεις, Greek for omission) in linguistics refers to any omitted part of speech that is understood; i.e. the omission is intentional. Analogously, in printing and writing, the term refers to the row of three spaced dots ( . . . ) or asterisks (* * *) indicating such an intentional omission. This punctuation mark is also called a suspension point, points of ellipsis or colloquially, dot-dot-dot. An ellipsis is a rhetorical figure of speech, the omission of a word or words required by strict grammatical rules but not by sense. ... The ellipse and some of its mathematical properties. ... Linguistics is the scientific study of human language, and someone who engages in this study is called a linguist. ... In grammar, a part of speech or word class is defined as the role that a word (or sometimes a phrase) plays in a sentence. ... This article or section is in need of attention from an expert on the subject. ... See also Creative writing. ...

An ellipsis can also be used to indicate a pause in speech, an unfinished thought or, at the end of a sentence, a trailing off into silence. Ellipses are sometimes used in this manner for internet chat, email, and forum posts.

Typographical rules

There are differences in typographical rules and conventions of using ellipses between languages.

Ellipsis in English

The Chicago Manual of Style suggests the use of an ellipsis (also known as an ellipse) for any omitted word, phrase, line or paragraph from within a quoted passage. There are two commonly used methods of using ellipses: one uses three dots for any omission, the second makes a distinction between omissions within a sentence (using three spaced dots: . . . ;) and omissions between sentences (using a period and a space followed by three nonbreaking-spaced dots: . . .). Therefore, there is no such thing as a "four-dot ellipsis." A period followed by an ellipsis may look like four dots, but they are two separate entities. The Chicago Manual of Style (CMS) is a highly regarded style guide for American English, dealing with questions of style, manuscript preparation, and, to a lesser degree, usage. ... In computing, a nonbreaking space (NBSP) is a special space character that prevents an automatic line break (line wrap) at its position. ...

Although some write ellipses without spaces, some institutions, such as the Oxford University Press, place one space in front of three non-spaced periods. Thus: “I have seen something ...” instead of “I have seen something . . .” The exception here is when a word has been cut off in the middle; that is, when the ellipsis stands for a part of one word: “‘He said he realized he was wro…’ I stopped mid-word, awestruck.” (In English this is often written as “‘He said he realized he was wro—’ I stopped mid-word, awestruck.”) Oxford University Press (OUP) is a highly-respected publishing house and a department of the University of Oxford in England. ...

The use of ellipses can either mislead or clarify, and the reader must rely on the good intentions of the writer who uses it. An example of this ambiguity is, “She went to . . . school.” In this sentence, “ . . . ” might represent the word “elementary”, or the word “no”. Omission without indication by an ellipsis is always considered misleading.

At least one style manual—the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers—recommends that the writer enclose an ellipsis in brackets ([ ]) when omitting part of an original quotation. The purpose of this is to prevent readers from confusing ellipses indicating omissions with ellipses included in the original text. However, most other style guides, including the Chicago Manual of Style, recommend the use of bare ellipses to indicate omissions. The Modern Language Associations (MLA) style manual is an academic style guide. ... Various brackets in Arial // In writing Brackets are punctuation marks, used in pairs to set apart or interject text within other text. ...

In legal writing, Rule 5.3 in the Blue Book governs the use of ellipses, and requires a space before the first period and between the two subsequent periods. If an ellipsis ends the sentence, then there are three ellipses, each separated by a space, and the final punctuation.

An ellipsis also refers to a rhetorical device in the narrative of a story, where the narrative skips over a scene. An ellipsis is a form of anachrony where there is a chronological gap in the text. A good example is the phrase "FOUR YEARS LATER," which fills the screen near the end of the movie Cast Away (2000).

The following is an excerpt from The Chicago Manual of Style online [1]:

Q. How do I insert an ellipsis in my manuscript? My computer keyboard can do that with a couple of keystrokes. Is this acceptable? Or should I type period + space for all three dots? Should these spaces be nonbreaking spaces?

A. For manuscripts, inserting an ellipsis character is a workable method, but it is not the preferred method. It is easy enough for a publisher to search for this unique character and replace it with the recommended three periods plus two nonbreaking spaces (. . .). But in addition to this extra step, there is also the potential for character-mapping problems (the ellipsis could appear as some other character) across software platforms—an added inconvenience. Moreover, the numeric entity for an ellipsis is not formally defined for standard HTML (and may not work with older browsers). So type three spaced dots, like this . . . or, at the end of a grammatical sentence, like this. . . . If you can, add two nonbreaking spaces to keep the three dots—or the last three of four—from breaking across a line.

Ellipsis in Polish

In Polish, an ellipsis (called wielokropek, which means multidot) is always composed of three dots without any spaces between. There is no space between the ellipsis and the preceding word, but there is always a space after the ellipsis, unless the following character is a closing bracket or quote mark, in which case the space is inserted after that character instead.

When the ellipsis is used for omitting a fragment of quotation, it is always surrounded with either square brackets or, more commonly, parentheses, with no space inside:

„Słowem (...) chcemy stworzyć po raz wtóry człowieka, na obraz i podobieństwo manekinu.” (Bruno Schulz, Traktat o manekinach)

These rules are standardized by PN-83/P-55366 standard from 1983, Setting rules from composing of Polish texts (Zasady składania tekstów w języku polskim). Self portrait of Schulz Bruno Schulz (July 12, 1892 – November 19, 1942) was a Polish novelist and painter of the Jewish faith, widely considered to be one of the greatest Polish prose stylists of the 20th century. ... PN-83/P-55366, Zasady składania tekstów w języku polskim (Setting rules from composing of Polish texts), is a Polska Norma standard by Polish Committee for Standardization covering rules of typesetting used in Polish language. ... 1983 (MCMLXXXIII) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

An ellipsis without parentheses usually means a pause in speech:

Jest słoń z trąbami dwiema

I tylko... wysp tych nie ma.

(Jan Brzechwa, Na wyspach Bergamutach...)

It can also mean a word said partially and interrupted and in that case can be directly followed by another punctuation mark without space: Jan Brzechwa, real name Jan Lesman-No!! Jan Lesmian was another polish poet !!!! (August 15, 1900 – July 2, 1966) was a Polish poet and author, mostly known for his contribution to childrens literature. ...

Szef policji pierś wysadza

I spod marsa sypiąc skry,

Prężnym krokiem się przechadza...

Co za gracja! Co za władza!

Co za pompa! Jezu Chry...!

(Julian Tuwim, Bal w Operze)

Ellipsis can be used at the end of a sentence, but it is always composed of three dots, never four, and the only difference is the capitalisation of the next word: Julian Tuwim (September 13, 1894 – December 27, 1953) was a Polish poet of Jewish descent; born in the city of Łódź in Poland, educated in Łódź and Warsaw (studied Law and Philosophy at Warsaw University). ...

Ktoś dziś mnie opuścił w ten chmurny dzień słotny...

Kto? Nie wiem... Ktoś odszedł i jestem samotny...

Ktoś umarł... Kto? Próżno w pamięci swej grzebię...

Ktoś drogi... wszak byłem na jakimś pogrzebie...

(Leopold Staff, Deszcz jesienny)

Leopold Staff (November 14, 1878 – May 31, 1957) was a Polish poet. ...

Ellipsis in Japanese

In Japanese manga, the ellipsis by itself represents speechlessness, usually as an admission of guilt or a response to being dumbfounded as a result of something that another person has just said or done. At least coloquially, the dots are referred to by the moniker 'ten-ten-ten' (てんてんてん), one 'ten' for each dot. The dots may be vertical or horizontal in stacking, and there may be more than one row/column. The growing popularity of manga worldwide has extended this convention beyond the borders of Japan. For other uses, see Manga (disambiguation). ... An object is in a vertical position when it is aligned in an up-down direction, perpendicular to the horizon. ... Horizontal is an orientation relating to, or in parallel with the horizon, and thus perpendicular to the vertical. ...

In writing, the ellipsis is six dots (in two groups of three dots). The dots can be either on the baseline or centred within the baseline and the ascender when horizontal; the dots are centred horizontally when vertical.

Ellipsis in Chinese

In Chinese, the ellipsis is six dots (in two groups of three dots, occupying two-character width). The dots are always centred within the baseline and the ascender when horizontal, but on the baseline are also accepted today; and centred horizontally when vertical.

Ellipsis in mathematics

The centred ellipsis is also often used in mathematics to mean “and so forth,” e.g., Euclid, detail from The School of Athens by Raphael. ...

means the sum of all natural numbers from 1 to 100. However, it is not a formally defined mathematical symbol. These dots should never be used unless the pattern to be followed is clear. Another example is the set of zeroes of the cosine function. A natural number is either a positive integer (1, 2, 3, 4, ...) or a non-negative integer (0, 1, 2, 3, 4, ...). The former definition is generally used in number theory, while the latter is preferred in set theory and computer science. ... In mathematics, a set of symbols is frequently used in mathematical expressions. ... In mathematics, the trigonometric functions are functions of an angle, important when studying triangles and modeling periodic phenomena. ... Partial plot of a function f. ...

Ellipsis in programming

In some programming languages (Perl, Ada etc), a shortened 2-character ellipsis is used to represent a range of numbers. For example: Computer code (HTML with JavaScript) in a tool that uses syntax highlighting (colors) to help the developer see the purpose of each piece of code. ... Perl, also Practical Extraction and Report Language (a backronym, see below) is a dynamic procedural programming language designed by Larry Wall and first released in 1987. ... Ada is a structured, statically typed imperative computer programming language designed by a team led by Jean Ichbiah of CII Honeywell Bull during 1977–1983. ...

foreach (1..100)

The above command in Perl would iterate through the list of integer numbers from 1 to 100. Iteration is the repetition of a process, typically within a computer program. ... The integers consist of the positive natural numbers (1, 2, 3, …), their negatives (−1, −2, −3, ...) and the number zero. ...

In the C programming language, an ellipsis is used to represent a variable number of parameters to a function. For example: The C Programming Language, Brian Kernighan and Dennis Ritchie, the original edition that served for many years as an informal specification of the language The C programming language is a general-purpose, procedural, imperative computer programming language developed in the early 1970s by Dennis Ritchie for use on the UNIX... In computer science, a subroutine (function, procedure, or subprogram) is a sequence of code which performs a specific task, as part of a larger program, and is grouped as one, or more, statement blocks; such code is sometimes collected into software libraries. ...

void func(const char* str, ...);

The above function in C could then be called with different types and numbers of parameters such as:

func("input string", 5, 10, 15);

and

func("input string", "another string", 0.5);

Most programming languages require the ellipsis to be written as a series of periods; a single ellipsis character cannot be used.

Ellipsis in computing

In computing, several ellipsis characters have been codified. In Unicode, there are the following characters: Originally, the word computing was synonymous with counting and calculating, and a science that deals with the original sense of computing mathematical calculations. ... Due to technical limitations, some web browsers may not display some special characters in this article. ...

• For general use:
  • Horizontal ellipsis, …, at code point 2026
  • Lao ellipsis, ຯ, at code point 0EAF
  • Mongolian ellipsis, ᠁, at code point 1801
• For use in mathematics:
  • Vertical ellipsis, ⋮, at code point 22EE
  • Midline horizontal ellipsis, ⋯, at code point 22EF
  • Up right diagonal ellipsis, ⋰, at code point 22F0
  • Down right diagonal ellipsis, ⋱, at code point 22F1

These code points, given here in hexadecimal, typically manifest in encoded form, either via a Unicode Transformation Format like UTF-8, or via an older character map ("legacy encoding"). In mathematics and computer science, base-16, hexadecimal, or simply hex, is a numeral system with a radix or base of 16 usually written using the symbols 0–9 and A–F or a–f. ... A character encoding consists of a code that pairs a sequence of characters (units of information corresponding to graphemes or grapheme-like units, such as might appear in an alphabet or syllabary for the communication of a natural language) from a given set with something else, such as a sequence... In computing, Unicode is the international standard whose goal is to provide the means to encode the text of every document people want to store in computers. ... UTF-8 (8-bit Unicode Transformation Format) is a variable-length character encoding for Unicode created by Ken Thompson and Rob Pike. ... In computing, a legacy encoding is a character encoding that cant represent all of Unicode, but is still used for compatibility or other reasons. ...

The Chinese and Japanese ellipsis characters are done by entering two consecutive horizontal ellipsis (U+2026). In vertical texts, the application should rotate the symbol accordingly.

Unicode recognizes a series of three period characters (period being code point 002E, hexadecimal) as being a valid equivalent to the horizontal ellipsis character.

The horizontal ellipsis character may be represented in HTML by the entity reference …. Alternatively, in HTML, XML, and SGML, a numeric character reference such as … or … can be used. An excerpt of HTML code with syntax highlighting In computing, HyperText Markup Language (HTML) is a markup language designed for the creation of web pages with hypertext and other information to be displayed in a web browser. ... The Extensible Markup Language (XML) is a W3C-recommended general-purpose markup language for creating special-purpose markup languages, capable of describing many different kinds of data. ... The Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML) is a metalanguage in which one can define markup languages for documents. ... A numeric character reference (NCR) is a common markup construct used in SGML and other SGML-based markup languages such as HTML and XML. It consists of a short sequence of characters that, in turn, represent a single character from the Universal Character Set (UCS) or Unicode. ...

The horizontal ellipsis character also appears in the following older character maps:

• in IBM/MS-DOS Code page 874, as byte 85 (hexadecimal)
• in Windows-1250 through Windows-1258, as byte 85 (hexadecimal)
• in Mac-Roman and Mac-CentEuro as byte C9 (hexadecimal)
• in Ventura International encoding as byte C1 (hexadecimal)

As with all characters, especially those outside of the ASCII range, the author, sender and receiver of an encoded ellipsis must be in agreement upon what bytes are being used to represent the character. Naïve text processing software may improperly assume that a particular encoding is being used, resulting in mistranslation. A byte is commonly used as a unit of storage measurement in computers, regardless of the type of data being stored. ... Windows-1250 is a code page used under Microsoft Windows to represent texts in Eastern European languages that use Latin script, such as Polish, Czech, Slovak, Hungarian, Slovene, Croatian, Romanian and Albanian. ... Windows-1258 is a codepage used in Microsoft Windows to represent Vietnamese texts. ... The Mac OS Roman character set Mac-Roman encoding is a one byte character encoding system, traditionally used by Mac OS. In Mac OS X, it has been replaced with Unicode. ... Macintosh Central European encoding is used in Apple Macintosh computers to represent texts in Central European and Southeastern European languages that use Latin script. ... For other uses, see ASCII (disambiguation). ...

In a user interface, ... after a command means that the user needs to enter extra information before the command can execute. It is also used to signify that an operation may take some time, as in "Please wait...". The user interface is the part of a system exposed to users. ...

Types of ellipsis in typography

In typography there are various types of ellipsis, which are displayed below using T_EX. This article or section is in need of attention from an expert on the subject. ... The TeX logo The TeX mascot, by Duane Bibby ΤΕΧ, written as TeX in plain text, is a typesetting system created by Donald Knuth. ...

• a lower ellipsis ldots
• a centred ellipsis cdots
• a diagonal ellipsis ddots
• a vertical ellipsis vdots

The diagonal and vertical forms are particularly useful for showing missing terms in matrices, such as the size n identity matrix In mathematics, a matrix (plural matrices) is a rectangular table of numbers or, more generally, of elements of a ring-like algebraic structure. ... In linear algebra, the identity matrix of size n is the n-by-n square matrix with ones on the main diagonal and zeros elsewhere. ...