What is an ellipses in rhetorical terms? What is an example?

1 Answer
Dean
Nov 4, 2017

A rhetorical ellipsis is often used to omit words from a given sentence, but the idea of the sentence doesn't lose any credibility or sense through the omitted text that the dots (...) take place of.

Explanation:

An example would be "Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth…the proposition that all men are created equal."

The complete quote is "Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal," but we can use an ellipsis to shorten the thought and make it into one cohesive idea.

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