Ellipsis

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /ɪˈlɪp.sɪs/

Definitions

1. A punctuation symbol that indicates the deliberate skipping of words or an unfinished concept in text
2. A typographical mark used to signify omitted content or an incomplete idea in written expression
3. A series of dots used in writing to show that words have been left out or that a statement trails off

Etymology: The Greek word "élleipsis" meant "a leaving out" or "a falling short," built from "en" (in) and "leipein" (to leave). The same Greek root gave English "ellipse," the oval shape. The two words are doublets: they entered English along separate routes from the same source, one as a term of grammar and rhetoric and the other as a term of geometry, and they have stayed distinct ever since. The Latin form "ellipsis" was taken into English without any change in spelling or ending, so the word still looks much as it did in the classical Greek and Latin texts where rhetoricians used it for the deliberate omission of a word a sentence can do without. The typographic sense of three dots marking a gap in a text is a later extension of that idea of omission, not something the Greek writers had in mind.

Synonyms: omission, abbreviation