Ellipses are three equally spaced dots. Ellipses usually indicate that something has been omitted from a quoted passage, but they can also signal a pause or hesitation in speech in the same way that a dash can.

Indicating omissions

Just as you should carefully use quotation marks around any material that you quote directly from a source, so you should carefully use ellipses to indicate that you have left out part of a quotation that otherwise appears to be a complete sentence.

The ellipses in the following example indicate two omissions—one in the middle of the sentence and one at the end. When you omit the last part of a quoted sentence, add a period before the ellipses, for a total of four dots. Be sure a complete sentence comes before and after the four points. If you are adding your own ellipses to a quotation that already has other ellipses, enclose yours in brackets.

The quasi-official division of the population into three economic classes called high-, middle-, and low-income groups rather misses the point, because as a class indicator the amount of money is not as important as the source.

—PAUL FUSSELL, “Notes on Class”

As Paul Fussell argues, “The quasi-official division of the population into three economic classes . . . rather misses the point. . . .”

If your shortened quotation ends with a source (such as a page number, a name, or a title), follow these steps:

Packer then argues, “The Administration is right to reconsider its strategy . . .” (34).

Indicating a pause or hesitation

Ellipses are becoming more common in informal communication, where many writers prefer them to a period at the end of a sentence.

Let me know where you want to meet tonight. . . .