Wondering whether those three little dots are an official punctuation mark – and, if so, how to use it?
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What is an ellipsis?
Those three dots are known as an ELLIPSIS (plural ELLIPSES), which stems from the Greek meaning ‘to leave out’.
The ellipsis is one of 14 official punctuation marks in the English language.*
It has a number of uses:
✅ To indicate that a word or phrase is missing from a sentence or quote
“Make it simple, make it memorable… make it fun to read”**
✅ To show hesitation or an unfinished thought (most commonly used in fiction writing)
“But, I thought you said…?”
✅ To create a pause, to increase tension (also commonly found in fiction)
“Sam held her breath as she hid behind the door…”
How many dots are there in an ellipsis?
An ellipsis is always three dots.
❌ Never two
❌ Never five
❌ And never a random number “to fill the space”
(Hands up if you’re guilty of random dotting?!)
Remember this…
A friend who’s a primary school teacher told me her class call the ellipsis “a dun, dun, DUUUUUN” because it often indicates suspense.
So, next time you’re unsure how many dots in an ellipsis, just remember those school kids!
PRO TIP if an ellipsis follows a complete sentence, it follows the full stop. (This four-dot combo looks so weird to me that I refuse to use an ellipsis at the end of a complete sentence!)
*Bonus points if you can name all 14 punctuation marks. Let me know how you get on!
**The full quote from ad-man Leo Burnett is: “Make it simple, make it memorable, make it exciting to look at, make it fun to read.”
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FAQs
An ellipsis is always three dots. (Hands up if you're guilty of random dotting?!) A friend who's a primary school teacher told me her class call the ellipsis “a dun, dun, DUUUUUN” because it often indicates suspense. So, next time you're unsure how many dots in an ellipsis, just remember those school kids!
How many dots are in an ellipsis? ›
An ellipsis ( ... ) consists of three evenly spaced periods and is used to indicate the omission of words or suggest an incomplete thought.
What is the dots punctuation mark? ›
The ellipsis ... (/əˈlɪpsɪs/; 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.
What is the punctuation of ellipses? ›
An ellipsis, or ellipses in the plural form, is a punctuation mark of three dots (. . .) that shows an omission of words, represents a pause, or suggests there's something left unsaid.
What is an example of an ellipsis mark? ›
For example, this sentence contains an ellipsis: He must have left … about an hour ago. And this sentence contains multiple ellipses: He must have left about an hour ago …
How many punctuation marks are there? ›
What are the 14 Punctuation Marks in English? There are 14 punctuation marks that are used in the English language. They are: the period, question mark, exclamation point, comma, colon, semicolon, dash, hyphen, brackets, braces, parentheses, apostrophe, quotation mark, and ellipsis.
How to use 4 dot ellipsis? ›
Use a four‐dot ellipsis if you are omitting the last part of a quoted sentence that ends in a period, but the remaining words are still a complete thought. The first dot comes immediately after the sentence and functions as a period. The following three dots are spaced and indicate that material has been omitted.
What is the three dot symbol? ›
The three dot symbol ∴ means therefore. Less common, ∵ means because.
What is the name of the punctuation mark with two dots? ›
The colon, :, is a punctuation mark consisting of two equally sized dots aligned vertically. A colon often precedes an explanation, a list, or a quoted sentence.
What are the 14 punctuation marks and their uses of? ›
They tell the reader when to pause when to stop, and how to continue on. There are 14 punctuation marks in English, including the period, question mark, exclamation point, comma, semicolon, colon, dash, hyphen, parentheses, brackets, curly braces, quotation marks, apostrophe, and ellipsis.
3 commonly used types of ellipsis are: gapping, pseudogapping, and stripping.
What do 4 dots mean in texting? ›
Punctuation: Why do some people put four dots at the end of a sentence? The first three dots are a single punctuation mark called an ellipsis (…). The fourth is a full stop (aka period). An ellipsis in the middle of a sentence can be used to indicate that something has been left out. >
What is an example of an ellipse? ›
An ellipse has an eccentricity less than one, and it represents the locus of points, the sum of whose distances from the two foci is a constant value. Simple examples of the ellipse in our daily life is the shape of an egg in a two-dimensional form, the running tracking in a sports stadium, etc.
What do three dots mean in texting? ›
If you're texting or messaging someone and you see the ellipsis symbol pop up (often with 3 dancing or flashing dots), it means the other person is typing a new message. Sit tight and see what they say!
Is dot dot dot grammatically correct? ›
The ellipsis, or ellipses in plural form, is a series of dots used to represent an omission of words. Casually referred to as the dot-dot-dot, an ellipsis can take the place of a word, sentence, or even an entire section of text without affecting the meaning of the content.
Can an ellipsis be more than 3 dots? ›
An ellipsis is always three dots. (Hands up if you're guilty of random dotting?!) A friend who's a primary school teacher told me her class call the ellipsis “a dun, dun, DUUUUUN” because it often indicates suspense. So, next time you're unsure how many dots in an ellipsis, just remember those school kids!
How many dots should a standard ellipse have? ›
The ellipsis (plural 'ellipses') is a character of exactly 3 dots. Use the ellipsis: if you omit words in quoted text. to mark an unfinished phrase, clause or sentence.
