ellipsis

English

Etymology

From Latin ellipsis, from Ancient Greek ἔλλειψις (élleipsis, “omission”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɪˈlɪpsɪs/

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 “…” Ellipses are used to indicate that words have been omitted in a text or that they are missing or illegible.
   • 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: حَذْف‎ m (ḥaḏf)
• Bulgarian: многоточие n (mnogotočie)
• Chinese:

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

• Czech: trojtečka f
• Dutch: beletselteken n, doorlooppuntjes pl, ellips (nl) f
• Esperanto: tripunkto
• Finnish: ellipsi (fi), kolme pistettä (fi)
• French: points de suspension (fr) m
• German: Ellipse (de) f, Auslassungszeichen (de) n
• Greek: αποσιωπητικά (el) n pl (aposiopitiká)
• Hungarian: három pont
• Icelandic: úrfellingarmerki n

• Irish: comhartha focalbhá m
• Italian: puntini puntini puntini
• Japanese: … (ja), ……, 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)
• Kalmyk: олн цег (oln tseg)
• Latvian: daudzpunkte f
• Macedonian: неколку точки pl (nékolku tóčki)
• Mongolian: гурван цэг (gurvan tseg)
• Persian: سه‌نقطه‎ (se-noqte)
• Polish: wielokropek (pl) m
• Portuguese: reticências (pt) f pl, pontos de reticência m pl, três pontos m pl
• Russian: многото́чие (ru) n (mnogotóčije)
• Serbo-Croatian: trotočka (sh) f, trotočje n
• Spanish: puntos suspensivos m pl

omission of grammatically required words that can be implied

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

• Irish: focalbhá m
• Italian: ellissi (it) f
• Macedonian: испуштање n (ispúštanje)
• Polish: wyrzutnia f, elipsa (pl) f
• Portuguese: elipse (pt) f
• Russian: опуще́ние (ru) n (opuščénije)
• Serbo-Croatian: trotočka (sh) f, trotočje n
• Spanish: elipsis (es) f

See also

Punctuation

• apostrophe ( ' ) ( ’ )
• braces ( { } )
• brackets ( [ ] )
• colon ( : )
• comma ( , )

• dashes ( ‒ ) ( – ) ( — ) ( ― )
• ellipsis ( … )
• exclamation mark ( ! )
• fraction slash ( ⁄ )
• guillemets ( « » )

• hyphen ( - ) ( ‐ )
• interpunct ( · )
• interrobang (rare) ( ‽ )
• parentheses ( ( ) )
• period (US) or full stop (UK) ( . )

• question mark ( ? )
• quotation marks (formal, UK) ( ‘ ’ ) ( “ ” )
• quotation marks (informal, US, Computing) ( " ) ( ' )

• semicolon ( ; )
• slash (US) or stroke (UK) ( / )
• space (   )

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Latin

Etymology

From Ancient Greek ἔλλειψις (élleipsis, “omission”)

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /elˈliː.psis/, [ɛlˈliː.psɪs]

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

Inflection

Third declension i-stem.

Case	Singular	Plural
nominative	ellīpsis	ellīpsēs
genitive	ellīpsis	ellīpsium
dative	ellīpsī	ellīpsibus
accusative	ellīpsin ellīpsim	ellīpsēs
ablative	ellīpsī	ellīpsibus
vocative	ellīpsis	ellīpsēs

Descendants

• English: ellipsis
• Italian: ellissi, ellisse

References

• ellipsis in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “ellipsis” in Félix Gaffiot’s Dictionnaire Illustré Latin-Français, Hachette (1934)