ellipsis

(noun)

A punctuation mark consisting of three periods in a row, used to indicate an omission, a pause, or additional, unmentioned list items.

Examples of ellipsis in the following topics:

  • Parentheses

    • The bracketed expression "[sic]" is used after a quote or reprinted text to indicate the passage appears exactly as in the original source; a bracketed ellipsis "[...]" is often used to indicate deleted material; bracketed comments indicate when original text has been modified for clarity.
  • Em-Dashes and En-Dashes

    • Similarly, they can be used in place of an ellipsis to illustrate an instance where a sentence is stopped short because the speaker is interrupted or too emotional to continue.
  • APA: How to Reference Different Types of Sources

    • List the first six authors, then an ellipsis, then the final author.
  • Abbreviations and Acronyms

    • A small number of acronyms use slashes to show an ellipsis, as in "w/o" for "without."
  • Introducing and Formatting Quotations

    • Use an ellipsis (...) to indicate that there is more to the quote than you offer here.
Subjects
  • Accounting
  • Algebra
  • Art History
  • Biology
  • Business
  • Calculus
  • Chemistry
  • Communications
  • Economics
  • Finance
  • Management
  • Marketing
  • Microbiology
  • Physics
  • Physiology
  • Political Science
  • Psychology
  • Sociology
  • Statistics
  • U.S. History
  • World History
  • Writing

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