U+2026 HORIZONTAL ELLIPSIS (…). A single character replacing three periods, typographically correct and counting as 1 character instead of 3.

Ellipsis — Unicode Glossary

What is an Ellipsis?

The ellipsis is a punctuation mark consisting of three evenly-spaced dots that indicates an omission, a trailing off, a pause, or suspended thought. Unicode encodes a dedicated ellipsis character (U+2026, …) as a single code point, distinct from simply typing three consecutive periods (...). The difference matters more than most people realize.

The Single Character vs. Three Periods

The ellipsis character U+2026 (…) and three periods (...) look nearly identical on screen but behave very differently:

Property	Ellipsis U+2026	Three Periods ...
Code points	1	3
Line breaking	Stays together	Can break after any period
Spacing	Designed by font (often tighter)	Standard period spacing
Word count	1 token	3 tokens
Search matching	May not match `...`	Won't match `…`
Screen reader	"ellipsis"	"period period period"

From a typographic standpoint, the dedicated ellipsis character is preferable in body text because its spacing is optimized by the font designer. In programming and markup contexts, three periods are often more predictable.

Semantic Uses of the Ellipsis

Omission in quotations: "Four score and seven years ago…our fathers brought forth…a new nation"
Trailing speech or thought: She knew the answer, but still…
Pause or hesitation: "I'm not sure if I should… yes, I'll do it."
Unfinished lists: The package includes apples, oranges, bananas…
Code/UI: Loading…, File menu truncation "Open Recen…"

Ellipsis in User Interfaces

In UI design, the ellipsis has a specific convention: a menu item followed by an ellipsis (e.g., "Save As…") indicates that clicking it will open a dialog requiring further input before the action is taken. A menu item without an ellipsis (e.g., "Save") acts immediately. This convention comes from Apple's original Macintosh Human Interface Guidelines.

In modern apps, a three-dot "more options" button (⋯ U+22EF or ··· three bullets) is sometimes called an "ellipsis menu" colloquially, though it is technically a different symbol.

Ellipsis Variants

Character	Unicode	Name	Use
…	U+2026	Horizontal Ellipsis	Standard
⋯	U+22EF	Midline Horizontal Ellipsis	Mathematics
⋮	U+22EE	Vertical Ellipsis	Mathematics
⋱	U+22F1	Down Right Diagonal Ellipsis	Matrix notation
︙	U+FE19	Presentation Form Vertical Ellipsis	CJK presentation

Typing the Ellipsis

macOS: Option + ; (semicolon)
Windows: Alt + 0133 (numpad), or the Character Map
HTML: … or …
CSS content: content: "\2026"
Python: "\u2026" or the literal …

Quick Facts

Property	Value
Unicode code point	U+2026
Unicode name	HORIZONTAL ELLIPSIS
Character block	General Punctuation
macOS shortcut	Option + ;
HTML entity	`…`
UI convention	Ellipsis in menu item = dialog will follow
Three periods alternative	`...` (U+002E × 3) — fine for code, less ideal for body text

Ellipsis