Question: when do you use four periods in an ellipsis

title: Ellipsis
text: Whether an ellipsis at the end of a sentence needs a fourth dot to finish the sentence is a matter of debate ; Chicago advises it , as does the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association ( APA style ) , , while some other style guides do not ; the Merriam - Webster Dictionary and related works treat this style as optional , saying that it `` may '' be used . More commonly , a normal full stop ( period ) terminates the sentence , then a separate three - dot ellipsis is used to indicate one or more subsequent elided sentences before continuing a longer quotation . Business Insider magazine suggests this style , and it is also used in many academic journals . Even the Associated Press Stylebook -- notably hostile to punctuation that journalists may consider optional and removable to save newsprint column width -- favors this approach . It is consistent in intent if not exact form with the agreement among those in favor of a fused four - dot ellipsis that the first of them is a full stop terminating the sentence and the other three are the ellipsis . 

Answer: answer: Whether an ellipsis at the end of a sentence needs a fourth dot to finish the sentence is a matter of debate ; Chicago advises it , as does the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association ( APA style ) , , while some other style guides do not ; the Merriam - Webster Dictionary and related works treat this style as optional , saying that it `` may '' be used . It is consistent in intent if not exact form with the agreement among those in favor of a fused four - dot ellipsis that the first of them is a full stop terminating the sentence and the other three are the ellipsis .