Spacing After Ellipsis
The small mechanical rules governing spaces, periods, and line breaks around an omission mark.
An ellipsis marking an omission inside a quotation is three points, and the disagreement between styles is entirely about the spaces around and within them. Chicago sets three spaced periods with a space on each side ( . . . ). MLA and APA use the unspaced ellipsis character (…) with a normal word space on either side. British house styles are split, with many following the MLA pattern.
When the omission follows a completed sentence, most styles ask for four points: the sentence's own period, then the three-point ellipsis. The first point sits tight against the last word, as in 'He went home. . . . The rest is unrecorded.' Getting this right tells the reader whether a sentence boundary was inside the cut.
Two technical details matter in digital text. Use a non-breaking space or the single ellipsis character so the points do not split across a line break, and avoid typing three periods where the style demands the dedicated character, because search and screen readers treat them differently.
Common mistake: opening or closing a quotation with an ellipsis to show that the sentence continues in the source. Most styles consider this unnecessary — readers already assume a quoted fragment came from a longer text — and it wastes space that could carry content.
“We hold these truths to be self-evident . . . that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
Keep reading the glossary
Three dots that mark words omitted from a quotation.
A three-dot mark enclosed in square brackets — […] — that flags a deliberate editorial omission from a quotation.
Word-for-word — quoting exactly as the original was spoken or written.
An editor's word or phrase inserted inside a quotation, marked with square brackets.