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The ellipsis in the form of three dots is used when text is omitted from the beginning, middle, or end of a quotation: Shakespeare wrote, "When sorrows come, they come...in battalions". (The full quotation is "When sorrows come, they come not single spies,/But in battalions"). Any punctuation that precedes or follows the omitted text may or may not be shown before or after the ellipsis: You can fool all the people some of the time...but you cannot fool all the people all of the time. When the ellipsis comes at the end of a sentence, it is usually followed by a period. Dots are also used in direct speech to show that the speaker is hesitating or has left something unsaid: "I don't know... I'll try... I can't promise anything." In some styles of writing, asterisks are used when part of a word is omitted, usually part of a swearword.
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