💬 Ellipsis spoken 🔘 Menu button

dot dot dot

7.4

A pause in speech or writing showing something is left unsaid

noun
/dɑt dɑt dɑt/

: puntos suspensivos

In his speech, he trailed off with a dot dot dot, leaving the audience wondering what he was thinking.

Examples

When she added the dot dot dot in her text message, it made me curious about her real feelings.
She paused for a moment and then said, 'It's just dot dot dot, you know what I mean?'
And I keep doing that, the dangerous dot dot dots, OK.

Synonyms

ellipsis

vsdot dot dot

Specialized

2 5.8

Leaving out words from a sentence so the meaning is still clear

is the spoken or written phrase used to show that omission or a pause

suspension point

vsdot dot dot

Specialized

6.8

Three dots used to show words are left out or a sentence is not finished

is the spoken or written phrase that indicates omission or hesitation

eclipsis

vsdot dot dot

9.9

To leave out parts of words and sentences in speech or writing

is the phrase used to indicate omission or an unfinished thought

Surface Forms

dot dot dot singular

dot dot dots plural

Morphology

dot + dot + dot

The phrase is compositionally literal — repeating 'dot' signals three small marks/ellipsis, so a learner who knows 'dot' will understand it refers to three dots. However, the conventional UI meaning (that the icon opens a menu or shows more options) is a software-specific convention not predictable from the words alone without exposure, so the expression is only partly transparent.

Etymology

Dot dot dot comes from saying the three written dots '...' out loud as dot dot dot in scripts and messages. That clear image of three small marks makes a short pause or something left unsaid, so the phrase now means 'hesitation' or an 'unfinished thought'.