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Context is that protagonist suddenly found himself in unusual place/situation and trying to understand where he is and how he can possibly got there. After some rejected ideas he "thinks" this. (Situation in no way is related to "lever").

"Complete" sentence is:

てことは――。

I'm not even sure if it should be read as て こと は or てこ と は. Both variants seems to make no sense. From context I suspect that it may be some swear, but edict has many swear words, but not this...

Any suggestions?

edit: added context

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てことは is a more informal version of ということは, which means "That is to say ..." or "What this means is ...". 梃子【てこ】 ("lever") is not relevant as all.

て (or って in the middle of a sentence) is a colloquial particle that works like と or という. て/という refers to what has been mentioned in the previous context. You may have seen sentences that start with という, like in というのは, というわけで, と聞きました, etc.

えっ？　てことは、君はまだ学生なのか？
Wait, does that mean you're still a student?

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  • I thought that it may be って particle, but why it is reduced to only て? I never seen anywhere that it was possible in descriptions of って...
    – sklott
    Commented Aug 28, 2018 at 19:10
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    @sklott I suppose it's simply because starting a sentence with っ is nonstandard. (It does happen in casual light novels and such.)
    – naruto
    Commented Aug 28, 2018 at 19:17

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