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⋯

midline horizontal ellipsis

Midline Horizontal Ellipsis

⋯ is the centered three-dot math symbol: it replaces omitted middle terms while showing that a pattern continues. Use it in sums, products, and matrix rows; ordinary prose usually wants … instead. In East Asian text, the same character can serve as a centered punctuation ellipsis.

Text symbol

Search it as: cdots · ldots · mathellipsis · dotsb · hdots · matrix · omission
Shows up in: Anything that takes text · its shape is whatever your font draws

What ⋯ means

It means “continue the established mathematical pattern.” The dots replace repeated terms, factors, or matrix entries that the reader can infer.

As of 2026, the reviewed sources establish no first attestation or single inventor. Unicode treats ⋯, ⋮, ⋰, and ⋱ as a related matrix-ellipsis set for row or column omission.

Use centered dots between operators

Put ⋯ on the mathematical center line in expressions such as a₁ + a₂ + ⋯ + aₙ. Choose the lower … for comma-separated lists and normal writing.

Technical and precise; in casual prose it can resemble a formatting mistake.

For a conversational pause, use … rather than ⋯.

Don't confuse it with

…

Horizontal Ellipsis

⋯ vs …: centered mathematical omission versus baseline prose punctuation.

Combination ideas

An additive pattern with its middle terms omitted.

Questions people ask

Why does ⋯ show as a box on some devices?

Because that device's fonts have no glyph for it. The character is still correct and still copies correctly — the box is a missing glyph, not a broken character.

How to type ⋯

Windows (Word)

Alt+XType 22EF, then Alt+X to get ⋯.

Windows

Win+Rrun charmap for the full table, or use the emoji picker's Ω symbols tab (Win + .).

macOS

Control+Command+SpaceOpen the character viewer and search “midline horizontal ellipsis”.

Linux

Ctrl+Shift+UType 22ef, then Enter or Space.

HTML

⋯

CSS

\22EF

LaTeX centered dots

Use \cdots explicitly; amsmath's \dots may select the height from nearby symbols.

Codes and encoding1 code points

HTML decimal

⋯

HTML hex

⋯

CSS content

content: "\22EF";

Each escape is closed by the next backslash; a trailing space is needed before a literal hex digit.

URL encoded

%E2%8B%AF

On screen

Code points

JS .length

UTF-8 bytes

A visible symbol can contain several code points. JS .length counts UTF-16 units; UTF-8 counts bytes.

Families this belongs to

Maths & numbers1,835 symbols

1️⃣📏📐✖️➕➖➗🟰♾️#️⃣*️⃣0️⃣