省略

• Pinyin: shěng lüè
• Hanzi breakdown: 省 = 少 + 目 (to reduce, save, inspect); 略 = 田 + 各 (to omit, brief, strategy)

Meaning

To omit; to leave out; to abbreviate — deliberately excluding something from speech, writing, or a process.

Used in grammar (ellipsis), writing, presentations, and everyday communication. Can describe intentional brevity or the shortening of a procedure. In Chinese grammar, 省略 refers to the ellipsis of understood elements. Common collocations: 省略号 (ellipsis mark …), 省略细节 (omit details), 省略步骤 (skip steps).

Examples

1. 报告撰写者为控制篇幅，省略了大量技术细节，仅保留核心论点和关键数据。 To keep the report within a reasonable length, the writer left out many technical details and kept only the core arguments and key data.
2. 为节省时间，主持人宣布省略中间的提问环节，直接进入最终的闭幕式流程。 To save time, the host announced that the Q&A segment in the middle would be skipped and they would move straight to the closing ceremony.
3. 在汉语口语中，主语常被省略，因为说话的对象从语境中便可清晰判断。 In spoken Chinese, the subject is often omitted because the listener can clearly infer it from the context.

Usage Guide

Context: writing, grammar, presentations, daily life

Tone: neutral

Do Say

• 由于篇幅所限，本文省略了方法论的详细推导过程，完整内容请参阅附录部分。(Due to space constraints, this article omits the detailed derivation of the methodology; please refer to the appendix for the complete content.)
• 在非正式对话中，汉语的主语和宾语往往可以省略，而不影响整体语义的准确传达。(In informal conversation, the subject and object in Chinese can often be omitted without affecting the accurate conveyance of overall meaning.)

Don't Say

• 省略 when meaning to forget accidentally — 省略 is always intentional omission; use 忘记 or 遗漏 for accidental exclusion

Origin & History

省 (to save, to reduce, to examine) + 略 (to leave out, brief, strategy)

Cultural Context

Generation: All ages

Social background: Universal