diff --git a/src/calibre/ebooks/conversion/preprocess.py b/src/calibre/ebooks/conversion/preprocess.py
index 3ff816b3bf..bc4df4233a 100644
--- a/src/calibre/ebooks/conversion/preprocess.py
+++ b/src/calibre/ebooks/conversion/preprocess.py
@@ -554,5 +554,8 @@ class HTMLPreProcessor(object):
         html = smartyPants(html)
         html = html.replace(start, '<!--')
         html = html.replace(stop, '-->')
+        # convert ellipsis to entities to prevent unwrapping
+        html = re.sub('(?u)(?<=\w)(\.\s?){3}', '&hellip;', html)
+        html = re.sub('(?u)(?<=\w)\s(\.\s?){3}', '&nbsp;&hellip;', html)
         return substitute_entites(html)