# Is there a difference between \ldots and \textellipsis?

Therefore, you cannot enter ‘ellipsis’ by just typing three dots, as the spacing would be wrong. Instead, there is a special command for these dots. It is called \ldots:

Not like this ... but like this:\\ New York, Tokyo, Budapest, \ldots

Alternatively, you can use the \textellipsis command which allows the spacing between the dots to vary.

The page provides no further information about how one might actually vary the spacing between dots using \textellipsis, and I can't see any difference between the outputs produced by \ldots and \textellipsis. So, my question is: what is the difference between the two commands?

In particular, I would like to know:

1. Do the two commands ordinarily produce the same output?
2. I've heard of a package called ellipsis; is it only by using this package that one might alter the spacing of \textellipsis?
• To begin with, \textellipsis is specific for text, while \ldots can be used also in math mode. Actually, in the default setup, \ldots is equal to \dots, which in turn is equivalent to \textellipsis in text, and to \mathellipsis in math. All these are high-level commands intended to be redefined when needed, e.g., when a different font/encoding is used, or by packages like amsmath.
– GuM
Aug 4, 2015 at 10:03

The difference between \textellipsis and \ldots is, that the latter can also be used in math mode. It is defined as (from latex.ltx):

\DeclareRobustCommand{\dots}{%
\ifmmode\mathellipsis\else\textellipsis\fi}
\let\ldots\dots


Therefore, the commands produce the same output in text mode.

Package ellipsis makes the space configurable via the macro \ellipsisgap, which can be redefined. An example is given in the documentation. It also provides other features (checking for following punctuation characters, \midwordellipsis, ...).

Alternatively, you can redefine \textellipsis, which is defined by the LaTeX kernel (latex.ltx):

\DeclareTextCommandDefault{\textellipsis}{%
.\kern\fontdimen3\font
.\kern\fontdimen3\font
.\kern\fontdimen3\font}


Just replace \kern\fontdimen3\font by the space you want or add a scaling factor in front of \kern.

There are font encodings as LY1, which contain the character as full glyph. for example, ly1enc.def defines \textellipsis as:

\DeclareTextSymbol{\textellipsis}{LY1}      {133}


Then the spacing is part of the glyph and cannot be changed without redefining \textellipsis to not using the glyph.

• @justin The plain TeX definition for \ldots is the same as LaTeX's \mathellipsis. LaTeX's definition is different for the text mode, \textellipsis is using the text mode period; plain TeX does not have a text mode version, it uses the math mode glyphs instead. Aug 4, 2015 at 22:35

\textellipisis is defined via

\DeclareTextCommandDefault{\textellipsis}{%
.\kern\fontdimen3\font
.\kern\fontdimen3\font
.\kern\fontdimen3\font}


So by default places three . from the current font but that is only a default, it is an encoding specific command and if the encoding supplies a character eg U+2026 in unicode encodings, then that may be used insted.

\ldots is

\DeclareRobustCommand{\dots}{%
\ifmmode\mathellipsis\else\textellipsis\fi}
\let\ldots\dots


so it is \textellipsis in text mode, but also works in math.

• @GustavoMezzetti sorry didn't see your comment till after:-) Aug 4, 2015 at 10:23