Ellipsis

Definition: Ellipsis

Ellipsis

Noun

1. Omission or suppression of parts of words or sentences.

Date "ellipsis" was first used: 1570. (references)

Etymology: Ellipsis \El*lip"sis\, noun; plural Ellipses. [Latin expression, from the Greek expression leaving, defect, from to leave in fall short; in to leave. See In, and Loan, and compare to Ellipse.]. (Websters 1913)

Specialty Definitions: Ellipsis

Domain	Definitions
Language	The process or result of omitting some part of a word or sentence. The words or parts of words missing are often said to be "understood" or necessary to make the construction grammatically complete. Source: European Union. (references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Specialty Definition: Ellipsis

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

In printing and writing, an ellipsis (plural: ellipses) is a row of three dots (...) or asterisks (* * *) indicating an intentional omission.

An example is, "She went to ... school." In this sentence, "..." might represent the word "elementary", or the word "no". The use of ellipsis can either mislead or clarify, and the reader must rely on the good intentions of the writer who uses it. Omission without indication by ellipsis is always considered misleading.

Ellipsis can also used to indicate a pause in speech, or be used at the end of a sentence to indicate a trailing off into silence.

The Chicago Manual of Style suggests the use of ellipsis points for any omitted word, phrase, line, or paragraph from within a quoted passage. There are two commonly used methods of using ellipses: one uses three dots for any omission, the second makes a distinction between omissions within a sentence (using three dots) and omissions between sentences (using a period followed by three spaced dots).

An ellipsis is also a rhetorical figure of speech, the omission of a word or words required by strict grammatical rules but not by sense. The missing words are implied by the context.

Typical examples of this are:

Pat embraces Meredith, and Meredith, Pat, in which the second instance of the word embraces is implied rather than explict.

And so to bed, which appears on several occasions in the diary of Samuel Pepys, meaning and so I went to bed.

Is there for honest Poverty

That hings his head, an' a' that;

(the opening of a poem by Robert Burns. Burns is asking:

Is there an honest man among us who hangs his head, and otherwise cringes, because of his Poverty?

"Wikipedia is the greatest encyclopedia ever created" which can be interpreted as a short way to say:"Wikipedia is the greatest encyclopedia that has ever been created"

(This could also be explained without using ellipsis. "Created" is a past participle, which modifies the noun "encyclopedia" in the same manner as an adjective ie "Wikipedia is the greatest created encyclopedia ever.) The aposiopesis is a form of ellipsis.

In computer programming, the ellipsis is Unicode character 0x2026, which is displayed as "…".

Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Ellipsis."

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Synonym: Ellipsis

Synonym: eclipsis (n). (additional references)

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Synonyms within Context: Ellipsis

Context	Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus).
Conciseness	Noun: conciseness; Adjective: brevity, " the soul of wit", laconism; Tacitus; ellipsis; syncope; abridgment; (shortening); compression; epitome; monostich; brunch word, portmanteau word.
Shortness	Elision, ellipsis; conciseness; (in style).
Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus.

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Crosswords: Ellipsis

English words defined with "ellipsis": Ellipses, elliptic, elliptical ♦ Subaud ♦ telegraphese ♦ Writ of prohibition. (references)

Specialty definitions using "ellipsis": natural deduction ♦ Omitted Relatives ♦ wild card. (references)

Etymologies containing "ellipsis": Ellipse. (references)

Non-English Usage: "Ellipsis" is also a word in the following language with the English translation in parentheses.

Latin (ellipse).

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Commercial Usage: Ellipsis

Domain	Title
Books	Best of Ellipsis Arts (reference) Fragments: Studies in Ellipsis and Gapping (reference) Mind the Gap: Ellipsis and Stylistic Variation in Spoken and Written English (Textual Explorations) (reference) Parallelism and Prosody in the Processing of Ellipsis Sentences (Outstanding Dissertations in Linguistics) (reference) Principle B, VP Ellipsis, and Interpretation in Child Grammar (Current Studies in Linguistics) (reference) (more book examples)

Periodicals	Ellipsis (reference) (more periodical examples)

Consumer Goods	Nambé Ellipsis Vase (11-in.) (reference) (more baby examples; more wireless phone examples; more garden examples; more kitchen examples; more tool examples)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Use in Literature: Ellipsis

Title	Author	Quote
Les Miserables	Hugo, Victor	Nothing is more natural to drinkers than an ellipsis.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

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Usage Frequency: Ellipsis

"Ellipsis" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 100.00% of the time. "Ellipsis" is used about 37 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted)

Parts of Speech	Percent	Usage per 100 Million Words	Rank in English
Noun (singular)	100%	37	56,631

Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.

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Frequency of Internet Keywords: Ellipsis

The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com.

Expression	Frequency per Day
ellipsis	84
ellipsis arts	4
ellipsis inc	3
drawing ellipsis	3
ellipsis punctuation	3
ellipsis graphing	3
ellipsis grammar	3
ellipsis help math	2
edition ellipsis	2
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Modern Translations: Ellipsis

Language		Translations for "ellipsis"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses.
Albanian		shenja që tregojn heqjen e tekstit (ellipse). (various references)

Arabic		‏علامات الحذف (cancellation), ‏الحذف, ‏إنتقال مفاجئ (leap). (various references)

Bulgarian		елипса (ellipse). (various references)

Chinese		省略号. (various references)

Czech		elipsa (ellipse), výpustka. (various references)

Danish		ellipse (ellipse). (various references)

French		ellipse (ellipse). (various references)

German		elliptisch (elliptic, elliptical), ellipse (ellipse). (various references)

Greek		έλλειψη (absence, dearth, default of, defect, deficiency, ellipse, failing, lack, scarcity, shortage, shortage of, shortcoming, starving, want). (various references)

Hungarian		szókihagyás. (various references)

Indonesian		elipsis. (various references)

Italian		ellissi. (various references)

Japanese Kanji		省略記号 , 中略 (omission). (various references)

Japanese Katakana		しょうりゃくき�"う, ちゅうりゃく (omission). (various references)

Manx		fockle-vaihaghey. (various references)

Pig Latin		ellipsisay

Portuguese		elipse (ellipse, elliptic). (various references)

Romanian		elipsã (ellipse). (various references)

Russian		эллипсис. (various references)

Serbo-Croatian		elipsa (ellipse). (various references)

Spanish		elipsis. (various references)

Swedish		ellips (ellipse). (various references)

Thai		การละไว้ (มีสัญลักษ�"์คือจุ�"สามจุ�"...). (various references)

Turkish		eksilti (ellipse), eksik fakat anlaşılır tümce kullanma (ellipse). (various references)

Ukranian		тире, еліпсис. (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references.

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Ancestral Language Translations: Ellipsis

Language	Period	Translations
Greek	700 BCE-300 CE	elleipsis. (various references)
Latin	500 BCE-Modern	defectio, defectione, defectionem. (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

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Misspellings: Ellipsis

Misspellings
	"Ellipsis" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: Allipio, Eliassi, elipses, elipsis, elipso, elipsot, ellepsis, ellipis, ellips, ellipso, ellipsus, Ellises, ellisses, Heliposis. (additional references)
Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references).

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Rhyming with "Ellipsis"

Words rhyming with "ellipsis" (pronounced 'El*lip"sis'): Absis, Actinomycosis, Adenosclerosis, AEsthesis, Agennesis, Albuminosis, Amanuensis, Amaurosis, Amitosis, Ampelopsis, Amphiarthrosis, Anacoenosis, Anacrusis, Anadiplosis, Anaesthesis, Anamnesis, Anastomosis, Anemosis, Angioneurosis, Antanaclasis, Anthesis, Anthracosis, Antiptosis, Antipyresis, Antisepsis, Aponeurosis, Aposiopesis, apsis, Archebiosis, Arsis, Arteriosclerosis, Arthrosis, Asepsis, Athetosis, Autokinesis, Auxesis, Basis, Biognosis, Calliopsis, Cardiosclerosis, Cariopsis, Caryopsis, Catachresis, Chemosis, Chlorosis, Chromidrosis, Cillosis, Cirrhosis, Classis, Coenesthesis, Coreopsis, Crasis, Crisis, Cyanosis, Cyclosis, Deesis, Dermostosis, Diagnosis, Diapedesis, Diaphoresis, Diarthrosis, Diegesis, Dipsosis, Diuresis, Ecchymosis, Ecphonesis, Ecthlipsis, Ectostosis, Emphyteusis, Empyesis, Empyrosis, Enantiosis, Enarthrosis, Endostosis, Enuresis, Epanadiplosis, Epanalepsis, Epanorthosis, Epexegesis, Eremacausis, Erotesis, Exanthesis, Exegesis, Exosmosis, Exostosis, Geognosis, Glaucosis, Gnosis, Gomphosis, haematosis, Haemocytotrypsis, Heterauxesis, Heterosis, hidrosis, hydrarthrosis, hydronephrosis, Hyperinosis, Hyperkinesis, Hypinosis, Hypotyposis, hysteresis, ichthyosis, Idiocrasis, ISIS, Karyostenosis, kinaesthesis, Limosis, lordosis, lysis, Marmorosis, Mathesis, meiosis, melanosis, Metachrosis, metalepsis, metempsychosis, Metemptosis, Metensomatosis, mimesis, missis, Morosis, Morphosis, Myopsis, Myosis, Mysis, Narcosis, Necrobiosis, Necrosis, Neurosis, Ochlesis, Osmidrosis, osmosis, osteoclasis, Osteoporosis, Osteosclerosis, Ostosis, Paracentesis, Paraphimosis, paremptosis, Parostosis, Pedesis, Peristalsis, Persis, Pertussis, Pharmacognosis, Phasis, Phimosis, Phlogosis, Phthisis, Phyllomorphosis, Polymorphosis, Proemptosis, Prognosis, Prolepsis, Pseudoblepsis, Psychosis, Pterylosis, Ptilosis, Ptosis, Pyrosis, Reversis, Sarcosis, Scepsis, Schesis, Schindylesis, sclerosis, scoliosis, sepsis, siderosis, Sphrigosis, stasis, Stegnosis, stenosis, Sycosis, syllepsis, symbiosis, Synanthesis, Synartesis, Synarthrosis, Synchondrosis, Synchoresis, Syndesmosis, Synecphonesis, synizesis, Synneorosis, synopsis, Synosteosis, Synostosis, Synteresis, Syssarcosis, Thanatopsis, Thermoneurosis, thesis, Thlipsis, Thoracentesis, thrombosis, Tmesis, trichinosis, Tripsis, tuberculosis, Tussis, Tylosis, Xanthosis, Zygosis, Zymosis. (additional references)

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Anagrams: Ellipsis

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams
	Words within the letters "e-i-i-l-l-p-s-s"
	-1 letter: lipless, sillies.
	-2 letters: lilies, lisles, plisse, slipes, speils, spells, spiels, spiles, spills.
	-3 letters: isles, issei, lisle, lisps, pilei, piles, pilis, pills, plies, sells, sills, sipes, slipe, slips, speil, spell, spiel, spies, spile, spill.
	-4 letters: ells, ills, isle, leis, less, lies, lipe, lips, lisp, pies, pile, pili, pill, piss, plie, psis, seis, sell, sels, sill, sipe, sips, slip.
	-5 letters: ell, els, ess, ill, lei, lie, lip, lis, pes, pie, pis, psi, sei, sel, sip, sis.
	Words containing the letters "e-i-i-l-l-p-s-s"
	+2 letters: ellipsoids, pitilessly.
	+3 letters: lyophilises, misspelling, septillions.
	+4 letters: lickspittles, misspellings, philatelists, spiritlessly.
	+5 letters: aspergillosis, phillumenists.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro.