省略号 (shěng lüè hào) — ellipsis (punctuation mark, written as six dots…

Definition

Punctuation mark used in writing to show omitted or trailing-off text. The standard Chinese form is six dots (……), not three.

noun

ellipsis (punctuation mark, written as six dots ……)

，省略号。
Tā zài duǎn xìn lǐ xiě le yí jù méi yǒu shuō wán de huà, hòu miàn yòng shěng lüè hào biǎo shì.
He wrote an unfinished sentence in the text message and used an ellipsis at the end.
，省略号。
Yǐn yòng shí yào shān chú bù fen wén zì, kě yǐ yòng shěng lüè hào dài tì.
When quoting, you can use an ellipsis to replace deleted text.
省略号，。
Zhè piān wén zhāng lǐ shěng lüè hào yòng dé tài duō, dú qǐ lái bù liú chàng.
This article uses too many ellipses, making it read less fluently.

Compound word

构词法gòucífǎ

偏正piānzhèngModifier + head

The first part narrows down the second: it says what kind of thing the head is.

省略omit

联合Side by side

省略 means to omit and 号 is a mark, so 省略号 is the ellipsis mark.

Characters in this word

Most characters — around four in five — are built this way: one part hints at the meaning, the other at the pronunciation.

The upper part of 省 is a changed form of 生, which gave the sound, while the lower 目 is an eye; the picture showed looking closely or inspecting.

Most characters — around four in five — are built this way: one part hints at the meaning, the other at the pronunciation.

田各略

Meaning part形符xíngfú

Sound part声符shēngfú

各

各gè略lüè

The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

略 combines 田 (field) with 各 for sound; the described idea is walking around a field to outline it.

Two or more meaningful parts placed together so that their meanings combine into a new one.

口丂号

The shape 号 comes from 口, a mouth, and 丂, exhaled air or a tiger's cry.