component
Kebab menu
also called three-dot menu, vertical ellipsis
A menu of secondary actions opened from a trigger of three vertically stacked dots, usually at the end of a row, card, or toolbar.
The name is kitchen vernacular that stuck: three dots on a vertical skewer. It is not in any style guide’s index, which is exactly why people cannot find it, and why “what is the three dots menu called” is one of the most searched questions in this vocabulary.
The family is worth keeping straight. Three dots stacked vertically is a kebab. Three dots laid out horizontally is a meatball. Three lines is a hamburger, and it means navigation, not actions. Six dots in a grid is a bento; a vertical grip of dots you can drag is a hamburger’s cousin called a grabber.
Whatever it is called, it is an overflow menu: the place actions go when a row cannot afford to show them. Two rules keep it usable. Give it an accessible name, since three dots read as nothing to a screen reader, and never hide the only path to an action behind it.
Which word?
| If you want | say |
|---|---|
| extra actions behind three stacked dots | kebab menu |
| extra actions behind three dots lying sideways | meatball menu |
| the three-line button that opens the whole navigation | hamburger menu |
| actions for the exact thing you invoked them on | context menu |
Related
Variant of: Overflow menu
See also: Popover · Menu button
Implementations
Specimens illustrate the concept; for production use, start here.
| material | Menus |
| radix | Dropdown Menu |