An ellipsis is a rhetorical and typographic device consisting of the omission of one or more words from a text or speech, where the missing material is recoverable from context. It operates through three mechanisms: (1) syntactic ellipsis — omitting repeated or recoverable constituents within a sentence; (2) stylistic ellipsis — the deliberate trailing off of thought, marked typographically by three dots (…) ; and (3) textual ellipsis — the marked omission of passage material in editing or quotation. The persistence mechanism is the convention of written and spoken language, enforced by editorial practice and grammatical teaching. [formal: ellipsis | substrate: mind | horizon: a moment | explicit: no | epoch: 0.01]
Accepted ontology entry
ellipsis
An ellipsis is a rhetorical and typographic device consisting of the omission of one or more words from a text or speech, where the missing material is recoverable from context. It operates through three mechanisms: (1) syntactic ellipsis…
Definition
Why it is in scope
A rhetorical and typographic device in which one or more words are deliberately omitted from a sentence or passage, relying on context for the reader to supply them. Human-made through the conventions of writing, editing, and literary style.
Names and aliases
- ellipsisen · CANONICAL
Relations from this entry
- cmrtfjde400049zhnv4xb5z4fINSTANCE_OF →
An ellipsis is a specific kind of figure of speech where words are deliberately omitted. The competent-speaker test passes: 'ellipsis is a kind of figure of speech.' Per Law 9, specific→general.
- cmrmf7wqp001sd1nlgdko4rbiSERVES →
Law 8d, pinning the RHETORICAL sense the accepted definition leads with ('a rhetorical and typographic device'): its second mechanism is 'stylistic ellipsis — the deliberate trailing off of thought,' a deliberate effect on the audience, and even its syntactic mechanism is a tool of concision available to the rhetor. The device is designed for the sake of rhetoric — producing intended effects (concision, suspense, trailing off) in an audience — matching the accepted pinned sense for metaphor, irony, metonymy, hyperbole SERVES rhetoric. The pinned sense is the rhetorical/typographic device, not recoverability-as-grammar in isolation.
- cms78tcq900wfa34cou8pgdf5INSTANCE_OF →
Ellipsis (omission of words with continuation implied) is a specific rhetorical figure. Law 9 nearest-kind: a competent speaker would call it 'a rhetorical figure.'
Relations to this entry
No accepted relations in this direction.
Record identity
- Created
- Jul 21, 2026, 2:03 AM UTC
- Content hash
- dab9847340a202e002ff550e78fb73859b6492a91e4bfa6439d34c23467e1c19