ellipsis

English

Wikipedia

Etymology

From Ancient Greek ἔλλειψις (elleipsis, “omission”).

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ɪˈlɪpsɪs/ X-SAMPA: /I"lIp.sIs/

Noun

ellipsis (plural ellipses)

1. (typography) A mark consisting of three periods, historically with spaces in between, before, and after them “ . . . ”, nowadays a single character “…” (used in printing to indicate an omission).
   • 2006, Danielle Corsetto, Girls with Slingshots: 114

     CARD: Hey Baby. Thanks for the … last night. Love you!

     HAZEL: Wow. I’ve never despised an ellipsis so much in my life.

2. (grammar, rhetoric) The omission of a grammatically required word or phrase that can be inferred.
3. (film) The omission of scenes in a film that do not advance the plot.
   • 2002, David Blanke, The 1910s: 219

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

Synonyms

• (typography indicating omission): dot dot dot

Translations

mark used in printing to indicate an omission

• Arabic: حذف (ar) (Hadhf) m
• Bulgarian: многоточие (bg) (mnogotočie) n
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: …… (cmn), 刪節號 (cmn), 删节号 (cmn) (shānjiéhào), 省略號 (cmn), 省略号 (cmn) (shěnglüèhào)

• Czech: trojtečka (cs) f
• Dutch: beletselteken (nl) n, doorlooppuntjes (nl) pl, ellips (nl) f
• Esperanto: tripunkto (eo)
• Finnish: ellipsi (fi)
• French: points de suspension (fr) m
• German: Ellipse (de) f, Auslassungszeichen (de) n

• Greek: αποσιωπητικά (el) (aposiopitiká) n pl
• Italian: puntini puntini puntini (it)
• Japanese: … (ja), …… (ja), 省略記号 (ja) (しょうりゃくきごう, shōryaku kigō), 省略 (ja) (しょうりゃく, shōryaku)
• Macedonian: неколку точки (mk) (nékolku tóčki) pl
• Persian: سه‌نقطه (fa) (se-noqte)
• Polish: wielokropek (pl) m
• Portuguese: reticências (pt) f pl, pontos de reticência (pt) m pl, três pontos (pt) m pl
• Russian: многоточие (ru) (mnogotóčije) n
• Serbo-Croatian: trotočka (sh) f, trotočje (sh) n
• Spanish: puntos suspensivos (es) m pl

omission of grammatically required words that can be implied

• Breton: berrdro (br) f
• Bulgarian: пропускане на дума (bg) (propuskane na duma)
• Czech: výpustka (cs) f
• Dutch: ellips (nl) f, weglating (nl) f
• Estonian: väljajätt (et), ellips (et)
• Finnish: sananheitto (fi), ellipsi (fi)
• French: ellipse (fr) f

• Greek: έλλειψη (el) (élleipsi) f
• Irish: focalbhá (ga) m
• Italian: ellissi (it) f
• Macedonian: испуштање (mk) (ispúštanje) n
• Polish: wyrzutnia (pl) f, elipsa (pl) f
• Russian: опущение (ru) (opuščénije) n
• Serbo-Croatian: trotočka (sh) f, trotočje (sh) n

See also

Punctuation

apostrophe ( ' ) ( ’ ) braces (publishing, music, programming) ( { } ) brackets (publishing, programming) ( [ ] ) colon ( : )

comma ( , ) dashes ( ‒ ) ( – ) ( — ) ( ― ) ellipsis ( … ) exclamation mark ( ! ) full stop (British) or period (North America) ( . ) guillemets (publishing) ( « » )

hyphen ( - ) ( ‐ ) interpunct (publishing, web design) ( · ) interrobang (rare) ( ‽ ) parentheses ( ( ) )

question mark ( ? ) quotation marks (formal, British) ( ‘ ’ ) ( “ ” ) quotation marks (informal, North America, computing) ( " ) ( ' )

semicolon ( ; ) slash ( / ) solidus (dated, mathematics) ( ⁄ ) space (   )

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Latin

Etymology

From Ancient Greek ἔλλειψις (elleipsis, “omission”)

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA: /elˈlip.sis/

Noun

ellipsis (genitive ellipsis); f, 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

Inflection

Number	Singular	Plural
nominative	ellipsis	ellipsēs
genitive	ellipsis	ellipsium
dative	ellipsī	ellipsibus
accusative	ellipsem	ellipsēs 1
ablative	ellipse	ellipsibus
vocative	ellipsis	ellipsēs

¹May also be ellipsīs.

Descendants

• English: ellipsis
• Italian: ellissi, ellisse