The ellipsis (, also known informally as dot dot dot) is a series of dots that indicates an intentional omission of a word, sentence, or whole section from a text without altering its original meaning.
The plural is ellipses. The term originates from the grc, ἔλλειψις, meaning 'leave out'.
Opinions differ as to how to render ellipses in printed material. According to ''
The Chicago Manual of Style
''The Chicago Manual of Style'' (abbreviated in writing as ''CMOS'' or ''CMS'', or sometimes as ''Chicago'') is a style guide for American English published since 1906 by the University of Chicago Press. Its 17 editions have prescribed writi ...
'', it should consist of three
period
Period may refer to:
Common uses
* Era, a length or span of time
* Full stop (or period), a punctuation mark
Arts, entertainment, and media
* Period (music), a concept in musical composition
* Periodic sentence (or rhetorical period), a concept ...
s, each separated from its neighbor by a
non-breaking space
In word processing and digital typesetting, a non-breaking space, , also called NBSP, required space, hard space, or fixed space (though it is not of fixed width), is a space character that prevents an automatic line break at its position. In s ...
: . According to the ''
AP Stylebook
The ''AP Stylebook'', also known by its full name ''The Associated Press Stylebook and Briefing on Media Law'', is an American English grammar style and usage guide created by American journalists working for or connected with the Associated Pr ...
'', the periods should be rendered with no space between them: . A third option is to use the
Unicode
Unicode, formally The Unicode Standard,The formal version reference is is an information technology Technical standard, standard for the consistent character encoding, encoding, representation, and handling of Character (computing), text expre ...
character U+2026 .
Background
The ellipsis is also called a suspension point, points of ellipsis, periods of ellipsis, or (
colloquially
Colloquialism (), also called colloquial language, everyday language or general parlance, is the style (sociolinguistics), linguistic style used for casual (informal) communication. It is the most common functional style of speech, the idiom norm ...
) "dot-dot-dot".
[. 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
Adeline Virginia Woolf (; ; 25 January 1882 28 March 1941) was an English writer, considered one of the most important modernist 20th-century authors and a pioneer in the use of stream of consciousness as a narrative device.
Woolf was born i ...
's short story "An Unwritten Novel" (1920). Depending on their context and placement in a sentence, ellipses can indicate an unfinished thought, a leading statement, a slight
pause, an echoing voice, or a nervous or awkward silence.
Aposiopesis
Aposiopesis (; Classical Greek: ἀποσιώπησις, "becoming silent") is a figure of speech wherein a sentence is deliberately broken off and left unfinished, the ending to be supplied by the imagination, giving an impression of unwillingness ...
is the use of an ellipsis to trail off into silence—for example: "But I thought he was..." When placed at the end of a sentence, an ellipsis may be used to suggest melancholy or longing.
The most common forms of an ellipsis include a row of three periods or full points or a
precomposed triple-dot glyph, the horizontal ellipsis . Style guides often have their own rules governing the use of ellipses. For example, ''
The Chicago Manual of Style
''The Chicago Manual of Style'' (abbreviated in writing as ''CMOS'' or ''CMS'', or sometimes as ''Chicago'') is a style guide for American English published since 1906 by the University of Chicago Press. Its 17 editions have prescribed writi ...
'' (''Chicago'' style) recommends that an ellipsis be formed by typing three periods, each with a space on both sides , while the ''
Associated Press Stylebook
The ''AP Stylebook'', also known by its full name ''The Associated Press Stylebook and Briefing on Media Law'', is an American English grammar style and usage guide created by American journalists working for or connected with the Associated Pr ...
'' (''AP'' style) puts the dots together, but retains a space before and after the group, thus: . Whether an ellipsis at the end of a sentence needs a fourth dot to finish the sentence is a matter of debate; ''Chicago'' advises it, as does the ''
Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association
APA style (also known as APA format) is a writing style and format for academic documents such as scholarly journal articles and books. It is commonly used for citing sources within the field of behavioral and social sciences, including socio ...
'' (APA style), while some other style guides do not; the ''
Merriam-Webster
Merriam-Webster, Inc. is an American company that publishes reference books and is especially known for its dictionaries. It is the oldest dictionary publisher in the United States.
In 1831, George and Charles Merriam founded the company as ...
Dictionary'' and related works treat this style as optional, saying that it "may" be used.
When text is omitted following a sentence, a normal full stop (period) terminates the sentence, and then a separate three-dot ellipsis is commonly used to indicate one or more subsequent omitted sentences before continuing a longer quotation. ''
Business Insider
''Insider'', previously named ''Business Insider'' (''BI''), is an American financial and business news website founded in 2007. Since 2015, a majority stake in ''Business Insider''s parent company Insider Inc. has been owned by the German publ ...
'' magazine suggests this style and it is also used in many
academic journal
An academic journal or scholarly journal is a periodical publication in which scholarship relating to a particular academic discipline is published. Academic journals serve as permanent and transparent forums for the presentation, scrutiny, and d ...
s. The ''Associated Press Stylebook'' favors this approach.
In writing
In her book on the ellipsis, ''Ellipsis in English Literature: Signs of Omission'', Anne Toner suggests that the first use of the punctuation in the English language dates to a 1588 translation of
Terence
Publius Terentius Afer (; – ), better known in English as Terence (), was a Roman African playwright during the Roman Republic. His comedies were performed for the first time around 166–160 BC. Terentius Lucanus, a Roman senator, brought ...
's ''
Andria
Andria (; Barese: ) is a city and ''comune'' in Apulia ( southern Italy). It is an agricultural and service center, producing wine, olives and almonds. It is the fourth-largest municipality in the Apulia region (behind Bari, Taranto, and Fogg ...
'', by
Maurice Kyffin
Morris Kyffin (c. 1555 – 2 January 1598) was a Welsh author and soldier, brother of the poet Edward Kyffin. He was also a student and friend of Doctor John Dee. Kyffin was a member of a literary circle that included the Queen's Godson Sir Jo ...
.
In this case, however, the ellipsis consists not of dots but of short dashes. "Subpuncting" of
medieval
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the Post-classical, post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with t ...
manuscripts also denotes omitted meaning and may be related.
Occasionally, it would be used in pulp fiction and other works of early 20th-century fiction to denote expletives that would otherwise have been censored.
An ellipsis may also imply an unstated alternative indicated by context. For example, "I never drink wine ..." implies that the speaker does drink something elsesuch as vodka.
In reported speech, the ellipsis can be used to represent an intentional silence.
In poetry, an ellipsis is used as a thought-pause or
line break at the
caesura
image:Music-caesura.svg, 300px, An example of a caesura in modern western music notation
A caesura (, . caesuras or caesurae; Latin for "cutting"), also written cæsura and cesura, is a Metre (poetry), metrical pause or break in a Verse (poetry), ...
or this is used to highlight sarcasm or make the reader think about the last points in the poem.
In news reporting, often put inside square
brackets
A bracket is either of two tall fore- or back-facing punctuation marks commonly used to isolate a segment of text or data from its surroundings. Typically deployed in symmetric pairs, an individual bracket may be identified as a 'left' or 'r ...
, it is used to indicate that a quotation has been condensed for space, brevity or relevance, as in "The President said that
..he would not be satisfied", where the exact quotation was "The President said that, for as long as this situation continued, he would not be satisfied".
Herb Caen
Herbert Eugene Caen (; April 3, 1916 February 1, 1997) was a San Francisco humorist and journalist whose daily column of local goings-on and insider gossip, social and political happenings, and offbeat puns and anecdotes—"A continuous love let ...
, Pulitzer-prize-winning columnist for the ''San Francisco Chronicle'', became famous for his "three-dot journalism".
[`HERB CAEN WAY . . .' HONORS S.F. COLUMNIST]
, in the ''Deseret News
The ''Deseret News'' () is the oldest continuously operating publication in the American west. Its multi-platform products feature journalism and commentary across the fields of politics, culture, family life, faith, sports, and entertainment. Th ...
''; published May 29, 1996; retrieved September 5, 2017
In different languages
In English
American English
''
The Chicago Manual of Style
''The Chicago Manual of Style'' (abbreviated in writing as ''CMOS'' or ''CMS'', or sometimes as ''Chicago'') is a style guide for American English published since 1906 by the University of Chicago Press. Its 17 editions have prescribed writi ...
'' suggests the use of an ellipsis for any omitted word, phrase, line, or paragraph from within but not at the end of a quoted passage. There are two commonly used methods of using ellipses: one uses three dots for any omission, while the second one makes a distinction between omissions within a sentence (using three dots: . . .) and omissions between sentences (using a period and a space followed by three dots: . ...). The Chicago Style
Q&A recommends that writers avoid using the precomposed (U+2026) character in manuscripts and to place three periods plus two nonbreaking spaces (. . .) instead, leaving the editor, publisher, or typographer to replace them later.
The
Modern Language Association
The Modern Language Association of America, often referred to as the Modern Language Association (MLA), is widely considered the principal professional association in the United States for scholars of language and literature. The MLA aims to "st ...
(MLA) used to indicate that an ellipsis must include spaces before and after each dot in all uses. If an ellipsis is meant to represent an omission,
square bracket
A bracket is either of two tall fore- or back-facing punctuation marks commonly used to isolate a segment of text or data from its surroundings. Typically deployed in symmetric pairs, an individual bracket may be identified as a 'left' or 'r ...
s must surround the ellipsis to make it clear that there was no pause in the original quote: . Currently, the MLA has removed the requirement of brackets in its style handbooks. However, some maintain that the use of brackets is still correct because it clears confusion.
The MLA now indicates that a three-dot, spaced ellipsis should be used for removing material from within one sentence within a quote. When crossing sentences (when the omitted text contains a period, so that omitting the end of a sentence counts), a four-dot, spaced (except for before the first dot) ellipsis should be used. When ellipsis points are used in the original text, ellipsis points that are not in the original text should be distinguished by enclosing them in square brackets (e.g. ).
According to the Associated Press, the ellipsis should be used to condense quotations. It is less commonly used to indicate a pause in speech or an unfinished thought or to separate items in material such as show business gossip. The stylebook indicates that if the shortened sentence before the mark can stand as a sentence, it should do so, with an ellipsis placed after the period or other ending punctuation. When material is omitted at the end of a paragraph and also immediately following it, an ellipsis goes both at the end of that paragraph and at the beginning of the next, according to this style.
According to Robert Bringhurst's ''
Elements of Typographic Style
''The Elements of Typographic Style'' is a book on typography and style by Canadian typographer, poet and translator Robert Bringhurst. Originally published in 1992 by Hartley & Marks Publishers, it was revised in 1996, 2001 (v2.4), 2002 (v2.5), ...
'', the details of typesetting ellipses depend on the character and size of the font being set and the typographer's preference. Bringhurst writes that a full space between each dot is "another Victorian eccentricity. In most contexts, the Chicago ellipsis is much too wide"—he recommends using flush dots (with a normal word space before and after), or
''thin''-spaced dots (up to one-fifth of an
em), or the prefabricated ellipsis character . Bringhurst suggests that normally an ellipsis should be spaced fore-and-aft to separate it from the text, but when it combines with other punctuation, the leading space disappears and the other punctuation follows. This is the usual practice in typesetting. He provides the following examples:
In legal writing in the United States, Rule 5.3 in the ''
Bluebook
''The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation'' is a style guide that prescribes the most widely used legal citation system in the United States. It is taught and used at a majority of U.S. law schools and is also used in a majority of federal ...
'' citation guide governs the use of ellipses and requires a space before the first dot and between the two subsequent dots. If an ellipsis ends the sentence, then there are three dots, each separated by a space, followed by the final punctuation (e.g. ). In some legal writing, an ellipsis is written as three
asterisk
The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , ''asteriskos'', "little star", is a typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a heraldic star.
Computer scientists and mathematicians often voc ...
s, or , to make it obvious that text has been omitted or to signal that the omitted text extends beyond the end of the paragraph.
British English
''The
Oxford Style Guide'' recommends setting the ellipsis as a single character or as a series of three (narrow) spaced dots surrounded by spaces, thus: . If there is an ellipsis at the end of an incomplete sentence, the final full stop is omitted. However, it is retained if the following ellipsis represents an omission between two complete sentences.
The … fox jumps …
The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. … And if they have not died, they are still alive today.
It is not cold … it is freezing cold.
Contrary to ''The Oxford Style Guide'', the ''University of Oxford Style Guide'' demands an ellipsis not to be surrounded by spaces, except when it stands for a pause; then, a space has to be set after the ellipsis (but not before). An ellipsis is never preceded or followed by a full stop.
The...fox jumps...
The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog...And if they have not died, they are still alive today.
It is not cold... it is freezing cold.
In Polish
When applied in
Polish
Polish may refer to:
* Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe
* Polish language
* Poles, people from Poland or of Polish descent
* Polish chicken
*Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin screenwr ...
syntax, the ellipsis is called , literally 'multidot'. The word ''wielokropek'' distinguishes the ellipsis of Polish syntax from that of
mathematical notation
Mathematical notation consists of using symbols for representing operations, unspecified numbers, relations and any other mathematical objects, and assembling them into expressions and formulas. Mathematical notation is widely used in mathematic ...
, in which it is known as an . When an ellipsis replaces a fragment omitted from a quotation, the ellipsis is enclosed in parentheses or square brackets. An unbracketed ellipsis indicates an interruption or pause in speech. The syntactic rules for ellipses are standardized by the 1983 Polska Norma document
PN-83/P-55366, (Rules for Setting Texts in Polish).
In Russian
The combination "ellipsis+period" is replaced by the ellipsis. The combinations "ellipsis+exclamation mark" and "ellipsis+question mark" are written in this way: !.. ?..
In Japanese
The most common character corresponding to an ellipsis is called ''3''-ten rīdā ("''3''-dot leaders", ). 2-ten rīdā exists as a character, but it is used less commonly. In writing, the ellipsis consists usually of six dots (two ''3''-ten rīdā characters, ). Three dots (one ''3''-ten rīdā character) may be used where space is limited, such as in a header. However, variations in the number of dots exist. In horizontally written text the dots are commonly vertically centered within the text height (between the
baseline and the ascent line), as in the standard Japanese
Windows
Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...
fonts; in vertically written text the dots are always centered horizontally. As the Japanese word for dot is pronounced "", the dots are colloquially called "" (, akin to the English "dot dot dot").
In text in Japanese media, such as in
manga
Manga (Japanese: 漫画 ) are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long prehistory in earlier Japanese art. The term ''manga'' is u ...
or video games, ellipses are much more frequent than in English, and are often changed to another punctuation sign in translation. The ellipsis by itself represents speechlessness, or a "
pregnant pause
Comic timing emerges from a performer's joke delivery: they interact with an audience— intonation, rhythm, cadence, tempo, and pausing—to guide the audience's laughter, which then guides the comedic narrative. The pacing of the delivery of ...
". Depending on the context, this could be anything from an admission of guilt to an expression of being dumbfounded at another person's words or actions. As a device, the ''ten-ten-ten'' is intended to focus the reader on a character while allowing the character to not speak any dialogue. This conveys to the reader a focus of the narrative "camera" on the silent subject, implying an expectation of some motion or action. It is not unheard of to see inanimate objects "speaking" the ellipsis.
In Chinese
In
Chinese
Chinese can refer to:
* Something related to China
* Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity
**''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation
** List of ethnic groups in China, people of va ...
, the ellipsis is six dots (in two groups of three dots, occupying the same horizontal or vertical space as two characters) (i.e. ).
In Spanish
In
Spanish
Spanish might refer to:
* Items from or related to Spain:
**Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain
**Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries
**Spanish cuisine
Other places
* Spanish, Ontario, Cana ...
, the ellipsis is commonly used as a substitute of ''
et cetera
''Et Cetera'' ( or (proscribed) , ), abbreviated to ''etc.'', ''etc'', ''et cet.'', ''&c.'' or ''&c'' is a Latin expression that is used in English to mean "and other similar things", or "and so forth". Translated literally from Latin, means 'an ...
'' at the end of unfinished lists. So it means "and so forth" or "and other things".
Other use is the suspension of a part of a text, or a paragraph, or a phrase or a part of a word because it is obvious, or unnecessary, or implied. For instance, sometimes the ellipsis is used to avoid the complete use of expletives.
When the ellipsis is placed alone into a
parenthesis
A bracket is either of two tall fore- or back-facing punctuation marks commonly used to isolate a segment of text or data from its surroundings. Typically deployed in symmetric pairs, an individual bracket may be identified as a 'left' or 'r ...
(...) or—less often—between
bracket
A bracket is either of two tall fore- or back-facing punctuation marks commonly used to isolate a segment of text or data from its surroundings. Typically deployed in symmetric pairs, an individual bracket may be identified as a 'left' or 'r ...
s
.. which is what happens usually within a text
transcription
Transcription refers to the process of converting sounds (voice, music etc.) into letters or musical notes, or producing a copy of something in another medium, including:
Genetics
* Transcription (biology), the copying of DNA into RNA, the fir ...
, it means the original text had more contents on the same position but are not useful to our target in the transcription. When the suppressed text is at the beginning or at the end of a text, the ellipsis does not need to be placed in a parenthesis.
The number of dots is three and only three.
In French
In
French
French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to France
** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents
** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...
, the ellipsis is commonly used at the end of lists to represent . In French typography, the ellipsis is written immediately after the preceding word, but has a space after it, for example: . If, exceptionally, it begins a sentence, there is a space before and after, for example: . However, any omitted word, phrase or line at the end of a quoted passage would be indicated as follows:
..(space before and after the square brackets but not inside), for example: .
In German
In
German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
**Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ger ...
, the ellipsis in general is surrounded by spaces, if it stands for one or more omitted words. On the other side there is no space between a letter or (part of) a word and an ellipsis, if it stands for one or more omitted letters, that should stick to the written letter or letters.
Example for both cases, using German style: ''The first el...is stands for omitted letters, the second ... for an omitted word.''
If the ellipsis is at the end of a sentence, the final full stop is omitted.
Example: ''I think that ...''
In Italian
The suggests the use of an ellipsis () to indicate a pause longer than a period and, when placed between brackets, the omission of letters, words or phrases.
Usage in computer system menus
In computer
menu functions or
button
A button is a fastener that joins two pieces of fabric together by slipping through a loop or by sliding through a buttonhole.
In modern clothing and fashion design, buttons are commonly made of plastic but also may be made of metal, wood, ...
s, an ellipsis means that upon selection more options (sometimes in the form of a
dialog box
The dialog box (also called dialogue box (non-U.S. English), message box or simply dialog) is a graphical control element in the form of a small window that communicates information to the user and prompts them for a response.
Dialog boxes are ...
) will be displayed, where the user can or must make a choice. If the ellipsis is absent, the function is immediately executed upon selection.
For example, the menu item "Save" indicates that the file will be overwritten without further input, whereas "Save as..." indicates that a dialog follows where the user can, for example, select another location, file name, or format.
Ellipses are also used as a separate button (particularly considering the limited screen area of
mobile app
A mobile application or app is a computer program or software application designed to run on a mobile device such as a phone, tablet, or watch. Mobile applications often stand in contrast to desktop applications which are designed to run on d ...
s) to represent partially or completely hidden options. This usage may alternatively be described as a "More button" (see also
hamburger button
The hamburger button (the triple bar ≡ or trigram symbol ☰), so named for its unintentional resemblance to a hamburger, is a button typically placed in a top corner of a graphical user interface. Its function is to toggle a menu (sometimes ...
signifying completely hidden options).
In mobile, web, and general application design, the vertical ellipsis, , is sometimes used as an interface element, where it is sometimes called a
kebab icon. The element typically indicates that a navigation menu can be accessed when the element is activated, and is a smaller version of the
hamburger icon
The hamburger button (the triple bar ≡ or trigram symbol ☰), so named for its unintentional resemblance to a hamburger, is a button typically placed in a top corner of a graphical user interface. Its function is to toggle a menu (sometimes ...
(≡) which is a stylized rendering of a menu.
In mathematical notation
An ellipsis is also often used in
mathematics
Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...
to mean "and so forth". In a list, between commas, or following a comma, a normal ellipsis is used, as in:
:
or to mean an infinite list, as:
:
To indicate the omission of values in a repeated operation, an ellipsis raised to the center of the line is used between two operation symbols or following the last operation symbol, as in:
:
Sometimes, e.g. in Russian mathematical texts, normal, non-raised, ellipses are used even in repeated summations.
The latter formula means the sum of all
natural number
In mathematics, the natural numbers are those numbers used for counting (as in "there are ''six'' coins on the table") and ordering (as in "this is the ''third'' largest city in the country").
Numbers used for counting are called ''Cardinal n ...
s from 1 to 100. However, it is not a formally defined
mathematical symbol
A mathematical symbol is a figure or a combination of figures that is used to represent a mathematical object, an action on mathematical objects, a relation between mathematical objects, or for structuring the other symbols that occur in a formula. ...
. Repeated summations or products may similarly be denoted using
capital sigma and
capital pi notation
Multiplication (often denoted by the cross symbol , by the mid-line dot operator , by juxtaposition, or, on computers, by an asterisk ) is one of the four elementary mathematical operations of arithmetic, with the other ones being addition ...
, respectively:
:
(see
termial
A triangular number or triangle number counts objects arranged in an equilateral triangle. Triangular numbers are a type of figurate number, other examples being square numbers and cube numbers. The th triangular number is the number of dots in ...
)
:
(see
factorial
In mathematics, the factorial of a non-negative denoted is the product of all positive integers less than or equal The factorial also equals the product of n with the next smaller factorial:
\begin
n! &= n \times (n-1) \times (n-2) \t ...
)
Normally dots should be used only where the pattern to be followed is clear, the exception being to show the indefinite continuation of an
irrational number
In mathematics, the irrational numbers (from in- prefix assimilated to ir- (negative prefix, privative) + rational) are all the real numbers that are not rational numbers. That is, irrational numbers cannot be expressed as the ratio of two integ ...
such as:
:
Sometimes, it is useful to display a formula compactly, for example:
:
Another example is the set of positive
zeros of the
cosine function
Function or functionality may refer to:
Computing
* Function key, a type of key on computer keyboards
* Function model, a structured representation of processes in a system
* Function object or functor or functionoid, a concept of object-oriente ...
:
:
There are many related uses of the ellipsis in
set notation
In set theory and its applications to logic, mathematics, and computer science, set-builder notation is a mathematical notation for describing a set by enumerating its elements, or stating the properties that its members must satisfy.
Defining ...
.
The diagonal and vertical forms of the ellipsis are particularly useful for showing missing terms in
matrices
Matrix most commonly refers to:
* ''The Matrix'' (franchise), an American media franchise
** ''The Matrix'', a 1999 science-fiction action film
** "The Matrix", a fictional setting, a virtual reality environment, within ''The Matrix'' (franchis ...
, such as the size-''n''
identity matrix
In linear algebra, the identity matrix of size n is the n\times n square matrix with ones on the main diagonal and zeros elsewhere.
Terminology and notation
The identity matrix is often denoted by I_n, or simply by I if the size is immaterial o ...
:
:
Computer science
Programming languages
A two- or three-dot ellipsis is used as an
operator in some
programming language
A programming language is a system of notation for writing computer programs. Most programming languages are text-based formal languages, but they may also be graphical. They are a kind of computer language.
The description of a programming ...
s. One of its most common uses is in defining ranges or sequences, for instance means all the numbers from 1 through 10. This is used in many languages, including Pascal, Modula, Oberon, Ada, Haskell, Perl, Ruby, Rust, Swift, Kotlin, Bash shell and F#. It is also used to indicate
variadic function
In mathematics and in computer programming, a variadic function is a function of indefinite arity, i.e., one which accepts a variable number of arguments. Support for variadic functions differs widely among programming languages.
The term ''varia ...
s in the C, C++ and Java languages. ''See
Ellipsis (programming operator)
In computer programming, ellipsis notation (.. or ...) is used to denote ranges, an unspecified number of arguments, or a parent directory. Most programming languages require the ellipsis to be written as a series of periods; a single (Unicode) ...
''.
HTML and CSS
The CSS
text-overflow
property can be set to
ellipsis
, which cuts off text with an ellipsis when it overflows the content area.
On Internet chat rooms and in text messaging
The ellipsis is a non-verbal cue that is often used in computer-mediated interactions, in particular in synchronous genres, such as chat. The reason behind its popularity is the fact that it allows people to indicate in writing several functions:
* The sign of ellipsis can function as a floor holding device, and signal that more is to come, for instance when people break up longer turns in chat.
* Dot-dot-dot can be used systematically to enact linguistic politeness, for instance indicating topic change or hesitation.
* Suspension dots can be
turn construction unit
A turn construction unit (TCU) is the fundamental segment of speech in a conversation, as analysed in conversation analysis.
The idea was introduced in "A Simplest Systematics for the Organization of Turn-Taking for Conversation" by Harvey Sacks ...
s to signal silence, for example when indicating disagreement, disapproval or confusion.
Although an ellipsis is technically complete with three periods (...), its rise in popularity as a "trailing-off" or "silence" indicator, particularly in mid-20th-century comic strip and comic book prose writing, has led to expanded uses online. Today, extended ellipses anywhere from two to dozens of periods have become common constructions in Internet chat rooms and text messages.
The extent of repetition in itself might serve as an additional contextualization or paralinguistic cue, to "extend the lexical meaning of the words, add character to the sentences, and allow fine-tuning and personalisation of the message".
Computer representations
In
computing
Computing is any goal-oriented activity requiring, benefiting from, or creating computing machinery. It includes the study and experimentation of algorithmic processes, and development of both hardware and software. Computing has scientific, e ...
, several ellipsis
characters
Character or Characters may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Literature
* ''Character'' (novel), a 1936 Dutch novel by Ferdinand Bordewijk
* ''Characters'' (Theophrastus), a classical Greek set of character sketches attributed to The ...
have been codified, depending on the system used.
In the
Unicode
Unicode, formally The Unicode Standard,The formal version reference is is an information technology Technical standard, standard for the consistent character encoding, encoding, representation, and handling of Character (computing), text expre ...
standard, there are the following characters:
Unicode recognizes a series of three
period
Period may refer to:
Common uses
* Era, a length or span of time
* Full stop (or period), a punctuation mark
Arts, entertainment, and media
* Period (music), a concept in musical composition
* Periodic sentence (or rhetorical period), a concept ...
characters (U+002E) as
compatibility equivalent (though not canonical) to the horizontal ellipsis character.
In
HTML
The HyperText Markup Language or HTML is the standard markup language for documents designed to be displayed in a web browser. It can be assisted by technologies such as Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) and scripting languages such as JavaScri ...
, the horizontal ellipsis character may be represented by the entity reference
…
(since HTML 4.0), and the vertical ellipsis character by the entity reference
⋮
(since HTML 5.0). Alternatively, in HTML,
XML
Extensible Markup Language (XML) is a markup language and file format for storing, transmitting, and reconstructing arbitrary data. It defines a set of rules for encoding documents in a format that is both human-readable and machine-readable. T ...
, and
SGML
The Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML; ISO 8879:1986) is a standard for defining generalized markup languages for documents. ISO 8879 Annex A.1 states that generalized markup is "based on two postulates":
* Declarative: Markup should des ...
, a
numeric character reference
A numeric character reference (NCR) is a common markup construct used in SGML and SGML-derived markup languages such as HTML and XML. It consists of a short sequence of characters that, in turn, represents a single character. Since WebSgml, XML ...
such as
…
or
…
can be used.
In the
TeX
Tex may refer to:
People and fictional characters
* Tex (nickname), a list of people and fictional characters with the nickname
* Joe Tex (1933–1982), stage name of American soul singer Joseph Arrington Jr.
Entertainment
* ''Tex'', the Italian ...
typesetting system, the following types of ellipsis are available:
In
LaTeX
Latex is an emulsion (stable dispersion) of polymer microparticles in water. Latexes are found in nature, but synthetic latexes are common as well.
In nature, latex is found as a milky fluid found in 10% of all flowering plants (angiosperms ...
, note that the reverse orientation of
\ddots
can be achieved with
\reflectbox
provided by the
graphicx
package:
\reflectbox
yields
![Iddots black](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/47/Iddots_black.svg)
.
With the
amsmath
package from
AMS-LaTeX
AMS-LaTeX is a collection of LaTeX document classes and packages developed for the American Mathematical Society (AMS). Its additions to LaTeX include the typesetting of multi-line and other mathematical statements, document classes, and fonts c ...
, more specific ellipses are provided for math mode.
''User's Guide for the amsmath
Package''
American Mathematical Society, 1999, p. 12.
The horizontal ellipsis character also appears in the following older character maps:
* in Windows-1250—Windows-1258 and in IBM/MS-DOS Code page 874
ISO/IEC 8859-11:2001, ''Information technology — 8-bit single-byte coded graphic character sets — Part 11: Latin/Thai alphabet'', is part of the ISO/IEC 8859 series of ASCII-based standard character encodings, first edition published in 2001. I ...
, at code
In communications and information processing, code is a system of rules to convert information—such as a letter, word, sound, image, or gesture—into another form, sometimes shortened or secret, for communication through a communication ...
85 (hexadecimal)
* in Mac-Roman
Mac OS Roman is a character encoding created by Apple Computer, Inc. for use by Macintosh computers. It is suitable for representing text in English and several other Western languages. Mac OS Roman encodes 256 characters, the first 128 of which ...
, Mac-CentEuro and several other Macintosh encodings, at code C9 (hexadecimal)
* in Ventura International encoding Ventura International (or ''VENTURA_INT'') is an 8-bit character encoding created by Ventura Software for use with Ventura Publisher. Ventura International is based on the GEM character set, but ¢ and ø are swapped and ¥ and Ø are swapped so th ...
at code C1 (hexadecimal)
Note that ISO/IEC 8859
ISO/IEC 8859 is a joint ISO and IEC series of standards for 8-bit character encodings. The series of standards consists of numbered parts, such as ISO/IEC 8859-1, ISO/IEC 8859-2, etc. There are 15 parts, excluding the abandoned ISO/IEC 8859-12. ...
encoding series provides no code point for ellipsis.
As with all characters, especially those outside the ASCII
ASCII ( ), abbreviated from American Standard Code for Information Interchange, is a character encoding standard for electronic communication. ASCII codes represent text in computers, telecommunications equipment, and other devices. Because of ...
range, the author, sender and receiver of an encoded ellipsis must be in agreement upon what bytes are being used to represent the character. Naive text processing software may improperly assume that a particular encoding is being used, resulting in mojibake
Mojibake ( ja, 文字化け; , "character transformation") is the garbled text that is the result of text being decoded using an unintended character encoding. The result is a systematic replacement of symbols with completely unrelated ones, ofte ...
.
In Abstract Syntax Notation One
Abstract Syntax Notation One (ASN.1) is a standard interface description language for defining data structures that can be serialized and deserialized in a cross-platform way. It is broadly used in telecommunications and computer networking, and ...
(ASN.1), the ellipsis is used as an extension marker to indicate the possibility of type extensions in future revisions of a protocol specification. In a type constraint expression like A ::= INTEGER (0..127, ..., 256..511)
an ellipsis is used to separate the extension root from extension additions. The definition of type A in version 1 system of the form A ::= INTEGER (0..127, ...)
and the definition of type A in version 2 system of the form A ::= INTEGER (0..127, ..., 256..511)
constitute an extension series of the same type A in different versions of the same specification. The ellipsis can also be used in compound type definitions to separate the set of fields belonging to the extension root from the set of fields constituting extension additions. Here is an example: B ::= SEQUENCE
Input
In Windows, the horizontal ellipsis can be inserted with , using the numeric keypad.
In macOS, it can be inserted with (on an English language keyboard).
In some Linux distributions, it can be inserted with (this produces an interpunct
An interpunct , also known as an interpoint, middle dot, middot and centered dot or centred dot, is a punctuation mark consisting of a vertically centered dot used for interword separation in ancient Latin script. (Word-separating spaces did no ...
on other systems), or .
In Chinese
Chinese can refer to:
* Something related to China
* Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity
**''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation
** List of ethnic groups in China, people of va ...
and sometimes in Japanese
Japanese may refer to:
* Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia
* Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan
* Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture
** Japanese diaspor ...
, ellipsis characters are made by entering two consecutive ''horizontal ellipses'', each with Unicode
Unicode, formally The Unicode Standard,The formal version reference is is an information technology Technical standard, standard for the consistent character encoding, encoding, representation, and handling of Character (computing), text expre ...
code point U+2026. In vertical texts, the application should rotate the symbol accordingly.
See also
*
*
* Code folding
Code or text folding, or less commonly holophrasting, is a feature of some graphical user interfaces that allows the user to selectively hide ("fold") or display ("unfold") parts of a document. This allows the user to manage large amounts of text ...
or holophrasting -- switching between full text and an ellipsis
*
* – a row of three dots (usually widely separated) alone in the middle of a gap between two paragraphs, to indicate a sub-chapter.
* An em dash
The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...
is sometimes used instead of an ellipsis, especially in written dialogue.
* . In written text, this is sometimes denoted using the horizontal ellipsis.
*
*
*
References
Further reading
*
* Halliday, M. A. K., and Ruqayia, H. (1976), ''Cohesion in English'', London: Longman.
*
External links
*
*
{{Navbox punctuation
Mathematical notation
Punctuation
Typographical symbols