How do you use an ellipsis? No, not the aerobic exercise machine — that’s an elliptical. And we’re not talking about celestial bodies blocking each other in the sky, either. That’s an eclipse.
Ellipses are those three tiny dots that may appear together at the beginning, middle, or end of a sentence. The formal definition is “the omission from speech or writing of a word or words that are superfluous or able to be understood from contextual clues,” but the punctuation mark has acquired a few more casual usages in modern digital communications. The origin of this curious punctuation mark dates back to the 16th century, though at that time it was written slightly differently. Let’s look at where the ellipsis came from and how you should properly use the “dot dot dot” today.
In the book Ellipsis in English Language, Anne Toner examines the earliest known uses of “…” in English. It may have appeared in a 1588 English translation of the Roman comedy Andria, but in that piece, the ellipsis was written as four hyphens instead of three periods. This marking was used to interrupt a sentence to convey a sense of silence. According to Toner, the ellipsis became quite popular among 16th-century authors, and was used in the works of Shakespeare. Sometime in the early 18th century, the hyphens turned into dots, and by the early 19th century, three dots in succession (…) had become the new standard for how to write an ellipsis.
Now that you know a little more about the history of the ellipsis, here’s how to use it. There’s really only one formal use for an ellipsis: to indicate omitted information. Essentially, you swap out irrelevant details for a “…” to declutter a sentence while still maintaining its original meaning. You can also use an ellipsis to essentially “skip ahead” by cutting out the middle of a quote if you want to connect two separate passages.
For example, Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities has one of the most recognizable introductions in literature, but someone quoting it might want to reference only a selection of it: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times … it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness.” The ellipsis in the middle of the text lets us know we’re missing some words.
Even with the formal punctuation rules, the ellipsis retains an informal usage related to 16th-century stage direction: Writers use it to convey a sense of hesitation or pause at the beginning, middle, or end of a sentence. An ellipsis at the end of a sentence may seem to trail off instead of ending decisively; this may help establish a feeling of uncertainty or spaciness. This usage has been adopted heavily in digital communications. A text that reads, “I was waiting for you…” implies a tone of exasperation, while “I was waiting for you!” conveys excitement.
Keep in mind that various style guides have different rules for how to write an ellipsis, so it’s worth checking your preferred style guide for more information. For instance, the AP Stylebook says you should write an ellipsis without any spaces between the individual dots but include a space on either side of the set of three dots ( … ), while the Chicago Manual of Style tells you to put a space between each dot (. . .).
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