ellipsis

English

Examples (grammar)
He is faster than she. (Here, a trailing “is fast” is omitted, grammatically required, and implied.) She went home, so I did, too. (Did stands for “did go home”.)

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from Latin ellīpsis, from Ancient Greek ἔλλειψις (élleipsis, “omission”). Doublet of ellipse.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɪˈlɪp.sɪs/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Hyphenation: el‧lip‧sis

Noun

ellipsis (countable and uncountable, plural ellipses)

1. (typography, mathematics) A mark consisting of multiple full stops (with or without spaces), used to indicate omitted, missing, or illegible words; or (in mathematics) that a pattern continues.

   Synonyms: (colloquial) dot dot dot, suspension dots, suspension points

   The ellipsis in 1, 2, 3, ..., 8, 9 means that the numbers 4, 5, 6, and 7 are not explicitly included, but are considered to be part of the pattern.

   The ellipsis in 0.333... means that the number is a repeating decimal, having threes that go on forever.

   • 2006, Danielle Corsetto, Girls with Slingshots: 114‎^[1]:

     CARD: Hey Baby. Thanks for the … last night. Love you!
     HAZEL: Wow. I've never despised an ellipsis so much in my life.

3. (grammar, linguistics, rhetoric) The omission of a word or phrase that can be inferred from the context.
4. (film) The omission of scenes in a film that do not advance the plot.
   • 2002, David Blanke, The 1910s: 219‎^[2]:

     It was now possible for writers and directors to cut scenes that did not further the plot; called "ellipses" by filmmakers.

5. (obsolete, geometry) An ellipse.

Derived terms

• ellipsism
• ellipsization
• vertical ellipsis

Related terms

• elliptical
• elliptically

Translations

typographic mark

• Albanian: shumëpikësh (sq) m
• Arabic: حَذْف m (ḥaḏf), إِضْمَار m (ʔiḍmār)
• Armenian: կախման կետեր (hy) pl (kaxman keter)
• Azerbaijani: üç nöqtə
• Belarusian: шматкро́п'е n (šmatkrópʺje), кро́пкі f pl (krópki)
• Bengali: please add this translation if you can
• Bulgarian: многото́чие n (mnogotóčie)
• Burmese: ပေယျာလ (my) (peyyala.), စာချန်မှတ် (my) (cahkyanhmat)
• Catalan: punts suspensius m pl
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 刪節號 / 删节号 (zh) (shānjiéhào), 省略號 / 省略号 (zh) (shěnglüèhào), …… (symbol)

• Czech: trojtečka f
• Danish: ellipse c, udeladelsesprikker c pl
• Dutch: beletselteken (nl) n, doorlooppuntjes pl, ellips (nl) f
• Esperanto: tripunkto
• Estonian: punkt punkt punkt, kolm punkti, mõttepunktid pl
• Finnish: ellipsi (fi), kolme pistettä (fi)
• French: points de suspension (fr) m pl, ellipse (fr) f
• Georgian: მრავალწერტილი (mravalc̣erṭili)
• German: Auslassungspunkte (de) m pl, drei Punkte pl
• Greek: αποσιωπητικά (el) n pl (aposiopitiká)
• Hebrew: please add this translation if you can
• Hindi: please add this translation if you can
• Hungarian: három pont, hárompont-jel, hármaspont (hu)
• Icelandic: úrfellingarmerki n
• Indonesian: tanda elipsis
• Irish: comhartha focalbhá m
• Italian: punti di sospensione m pl, tre puntini
• Japanese: 省略記号 (しょうりゃくきごう, shōryaku kigō), 省略 (ja) (しょうりゃく, shōryaku), リーダー (ja) (rīdā), …… (ja) (symbol), … (ja) (symbol)
• Kalmyk: олн цег (oln tseg)
• Kazakh: көп нүкте (köp nükte)
• Khmer: ចំណុចបី (cɑmnocbəy)
• Korean: 줄임표 (jurimpyo), 점점점(點點點) (jeomjeomjeom), 말줄임표 (maljurimpyo)
• Kyrgyz: көп чекит (köp cekit)
• Lao: ຈຸດສາມຈຸດ (chut sām chut)
• Latvian: daudzpunkte f
• Lithuanian: daugtaškis (lt) m
• Macedonian: неколку точки pl (nekolku točki), три точки f pl (tri točki)
• Malay: tanda elipsis
• Mongolian:

  Cyrillic: цуваа цэг (cuvaa ceg)

• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: ellipse (no) m, utelatelsestegn n, ellipsetegn n, tre prikker pl

  Nynorsk: ellipse m

• Pashto: please add this translation if you can
• Persian:

  Iranian Persian: سِه‌نُقْطِه (se-noġte)

• Polish: wielokropek (pl) m
• Portuguese: reticências (pt) f pl, pontos de reticência (pt) m pl, três pontos m pl
• Romanian: puncte de suspensie (ro) n pl
• Russian: многото́чие (ru) n (mnogotóčije), троето́чие (ru) n (trojetóčije)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: тро̀точка f, троточје n, три тачке pl

  Latin: tròtočka (sh) f, trotočje n, tri tačke pl

• Slovak: tri bodky f pl
• Slovene: tripičje n
• Spanish: puntos suspensivos (es) m pl
• Swedish: uteslutningstecken (sv) n, utelämningstecken (sv) n, ellips (sv) c, tre punkter pl
• Tajik: бисёрнуқта (bisyornuqta), нуқтаҳо pl (nuqtaho), сенуқта (senuqta)
• Thai: จุดไข่ปลา (th) (jùt-kài-bplaa), จุดสามจุด
• Turkish: üç nokta (tr)
• Turkmen: please add this translation if you can
• Ukrainian: крапки́ f pl (krapký), три кра́пки pl (try krápky)
• Urdu: please add this translation if you can
• Uyghur: كۆپ چېكىت (köp chëkit)
• Uzbek: koʻp nuqta
• Vietnamese: dấu ba chấm (vi) (𧿫𠀧點), dấu chấm lửng (vi)
• Welsh: atalnodau llawn m pl

omission of word or phrase

• Albanian: elipsë (sq) f
• Breton: berrdro (br) f
• Bulgarian: пропускане на дума n (propuskane na duma)
• Catalan: el·lipsi (ca) f
• Czech: výpustka f, elipsa (cs) f
• Danish: ellipse c, udeladelse c
• Dutch: ellips (nl) f, weglating (nl) f
• Estonian: väljajätt, ellips
• Finnish: sananheitto (fi), ellipsi (fi)
• French: ellipse (fr) f
• German: Ellipse (de) f
• Greek: έλλειψη (el) f (élleipsi)
• Hebrew: אֵלִיפְּסָה (he) f (elípsa), הֶשְׁמֵט m (heshmét)
• Hungarian: szó vagy mondatrész kihagyása/elhagyása, szóelhagyás, ellipszis (hu), (as a way of forming a new lexeme) jelentéstapadás (hu)
• Irish: focalbhá m
• Italian: ellissi (it) f
• Japanese: 省略 (ja)
• Macedonian: испуштање n (ispuštanje)
• Māori: kupu mahue
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: ellipse (no) m

  Nynorsk: ellipse m

• Polish: wyrzutnia (pl) f, elipsa (pl) f
• Portuguese: elipse (pt) f
• Romanian: elipsă (ro) f
• Russian: опуще́ние (ru) n (opuščénije), про́пуск (ru) m (própusk), э́ллипсис (ru) m (éllipsis)
• Spanish: elipsis (es) f
• Thai: การละความ (th)
• Turkish: eksilti (tr), eksiltim, elips (tr)

See also

• eclipsis
• ecthlipsis

Punctuation

• apostrophe ( ' ) ( ’ )
• curly brackets or braces (US) ( { } )
• square brackets or brackets (US) ( [ ] )
• colon ( : )
• comma ( , )
• dashes ( ‒ ) ( – ) ( — ) ( ― )
• ellipsis ( … )
• exclamation mark ( ! )
• fraction slash ( ⁄ )
• guillemets ( « » ) ( ‹ › )
• hyphen ( - ) ( ‐ )
• interpunct ( · )
• interrobang (rare) ( ‽ )
• brackets or parentheses (US, Canada) ( ( ) )
• full stop or period (US, Canada) ( . )
• question mark ( ? )
• quotation marks (formal) ( ‘ ’ ‚ ) ( “ ” „ )
• quotation marks (informal, computing) ( " ) ( ' )
• semicolon ( ; )
• slash or stroke (UK) ( / )
• space ( ] [ )

Further reading

• “ellipsis”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
• “ellipsis”, in Merriam-Webster.com Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.

Latin

Etymology

Borrowed from Ancient Greek ἔλλειψις (élleipsis, “omission”).

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ɛlˈliːp.sɪs]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [elˈlip.sis]

Noun

ellīpsis f (genitive ellīpsis); third declension

1. ellipsis
2. ellipse
   • 1644, René Descartes, Principia philosophiae:

     Unde sequitur ambitum ABCD non esse circulum perfectum, sed magis ad ellipsis figuram accedere

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

Declension

Third-declension noun (i-stem).

	singular	plural
nominative	ellīpsis	ellīpsēs
genitive	ellīpsis	ellīpsium
dative	ellīpsī	ellīpsibus
accusative	ellīpsin ellīpsim	ellīpsēs ellīpsīs
ablative	ellīpsī	ellīpsibus
vocative	ellīpsis	ellīpsēs

Descendants

• → Catalan: el·lipse, el·lipsi
• → English: ellipsis
• → French: ellipse
• → Italian: ellissi, ellisse

References

• “ellipsis”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “ellipsis”, in Gaffiot, Félix (1934), Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.

Occitan

Noun

ellipsis

1. plural of ellipsi