css ellipsis on second line

A requirement for text-overflow: ellipsis; to work is a one-line version of white-space (pre, nowrap etc). Which means the text will never reach the second line.

Ergo. Not possible in pure CSS.

My source when I was looking for the exact same thing just now: http://www.quirksmode.org/css/textoverflow.html (Quirksmode ftw!)

EDIT If the good CSS gods will implement http://www.w3.org/TR/css-overflow-3/#max-lines we can haz this in pure CSS using fragments (new) and max-lines (new). Also some more info on http://css-tricks.com/line-clampin/

EDIT 2 WebKit/Blink has line-clamp: -webkit-line-clamp: 2 will put ellipsis on 2nd line.

This should work in webkit browsers:

overflow: hidden;
text-overflow: ellipsis;
display: -webkit-box;
-webkit-line-clamp: 3;
-webkit-box-orient: vertical;

browser support

div {
  overflow: hidden;
  text-overflow: ellipsis;
  display: -webkit-box;
  -webkit-line-clamp: 3;
  -webkit-box-orient: vertical;
}

* { font-family: verdana; }

<div>
   The <b><a target='_blank' href='https://developer.mozilla.org/docs/Web/CSS/-webkit-line-clamp'>-webkit-line-clamp</a></b> CSS property allows limiting of the contents of a block container to the specified number of lines. It only works in combination with the display  property set to <b>-webkit-box</b> or <b>-webkit-inline-box</b> and the <b>-webkit-box-orient</b> property set to vertical. In most cases you will also want to set overflow to hidden, otherwise the contents won't be clipped but an ellipsis will still be shown after the specified number of lines. When applied to anchor elements, the truncating can happen in the middle of the text, not necessarily at the end.
</div>

I found that Skeep's answer was not enough and needed an overflow style too:

overflow: hidden;
text-overflow: ellipsis;
-webkit-line-clamp: 2;
display: -webkit-box;
-webkit-box-orient: vertical;

Just use line-clamp for the browsers that support it(most modern browsers) and fall back to 1 line for older.

  .text {
    white-space: nowrap;
    text-overflow: ellipsis;
    overflow: hidden;


    @supports (-webkit-line-clamp: 2) {
      overflow: hidden;
      text-overflow: ellipsis;
      white-space: initial;
      display: -webkit-box;
      -webkit-line-clamp: 2;
      -webkit-box-orient: vertical;
    }
  }

browser support