ellipsis.

1. The leaving out of words that the surrounding language allows a reader or listener to supply.

2. A punctuation mark, usually three dots, used to indicate omitted text, trailing speech, or a pause.

3. A gap in a narrative where an interval or event is left unrepresented.

Use it for

Words that belong together

• grammatical ellipsis
• an instance of ellipsis
• recover a word by ellipsis

On the page

In her reply, I'll take the red one, ellipsis spared them another mention of the stolen coat.

The translation preserved the original's ellipsis instead of explaining every missing verb.

Usage notes

Primary category: literary. Forms: Singular ellipsis; plural ellipses. Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1 only. Use numbered sense fields for all meanings.