What’s the Plural of Ellipsis: Understanding Multiple Omissions

Ellipsis and Ellipses — See the Pattern

An ellipsis is a set of three dots (…) that you use in writing. It comes from Greek. That is why the plural does not just add an S. Look at these examples:

• There is one ellipsis at the end of this sentence… (one set of dots)
• The writer used several ellipses in the story. (more than one set of dots)
• Do you see the ellipsis after the word “but”? (one set of dots)
• Her email was full of ellipses. (many sets of dots)

Did you see the pattern? When there is one set of three dots, you say ellipsis. When there are two or more sets, you change the ending from -sis to -ses and say ellipses.

Why Ellipsis Becomes Ellipses

The word ellipsis comes from Greek, where it means “something left out.” In English, many Greek words that end in -sis change to -ses in the plural. This is a simple pattern:

• ellipsis becomes ellipses
• thesis becomes theses
• crisis becomes crises
• analysis becomes analyses

Easy way to remember: If a word ends in -sis, drop the -is and add -es. That is the Greek plural rule.

How to Use Ellipsis and Ellipses in Everyday English

An ellipsis does three things in writing: it shows a pause, it shows that words are missing, or it shows a thought that is not finished. Here are real examples:

• “I am not sure… maybe we should wait.” (the ellipsis shows a pause)
• “She said she was… happy.” (the ellipsis shows the speaker stopped to think)
• “If only I could tell you the truth…” (the ellipsis shows the thought is not finished)
• The text message had too many ellipses — it was hard to read. (many sets of dots in the message)
• The student used ellipses to shorten the long quote. (several sets of dots to cut words out)

You are doing great. Now let us look at the mistakes many learners make.

Two Mistakes to Avoid With Ellipsis and Ellipses

Even native English speakers get confused by this word — so if you have made a mistake with it before, you are not alone. The -sis/-ses pattern is not something most people learn in school.

Mistake 1: Writing “ellipsises” or “ellipsis’s” as the plural

How to remember: Do not add -es to the full word. Take off the -is and then add -es. Ellips + es = ellipses.

Mistake 2: Using “ellipses” when you mean only one set of dots

How to remember: One set of three dots (…) = ellipsis. More than one set of three dots = ellipses. Ask yourself: “How many sets of dots am I talking about?”

Other words that follow this same Greek pattern: thesis → theses, crisis → crises, basis → bases, diagnosis → diagnoses.

Test Yourself: Ellipsis or Ellipses?

Choose the correct answer for each sentence. Click Check to see if you are right.

Keep Going — You Are Building Something

You just learned the plural of ellipsis. That is one more Greek plural you will never get wrong again.

Ellipsis becomes ellipses because it follows the Greek -sis to -ses rule. The word thesis follows the exact same pattern — but do you know when to use theses instead? And what other -sis words change the same way?

Next lesson: What’s the Plural of Thesis?

Sources

Etymology of ellipsis, Online Etymology Dictionary.