elliptical

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English

WOTD – 6 July 2008

Etymology

elliptic +‎ -al, from (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Ancient Greek ἐλλειπτικός (elleiptikós), from ἐλλείπω (elleípō, “I leave out, omit”). Surface analysis ellipse +‎ -ical.

Pronunciation

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  • Audio (US):(file)

Adjective

elliptical (comparative more elliptical, superlative most elliptical)

  1. In a shape of, or reminding of, an ellipse; oval.
    • 1876, Edward Roth (translator), All Around the Moon, Chapter XIX,
      Having admitted that the projectile was describing an orbit around the moon, this orbit must necessarily be elliptical; science proves that it must be so.
  2. Of, or showing ellipsis; having a word or words omitted.
    If he is sometimes elliptical and obscure, it is because he has so much to tell us. -- Edmund Wilson
  3. (of speech) Concise, condensed.
    • 1903, Gilbert Keith Chesterton, Robert Browning, Chapter VI,
      Browning's dark and elliptical mode of speech, like his love of the grotesque, was simply a characteristic of his, a trick of his temperament, and had little or nothing to do with whether what he was expressing was profound or superficial.
    • early XX c., The Making of a New Yorker, by O. Henry
      He was called a tramp; but that was only an elliptical way of saying that he was a philosopher, an artist, a traveller, a naturalist and a discoverer.
  4. (mathematics, rare) Elliptic.

Usage notes

  • In botanical usage, elliptic(al) refers only to the general shape of the object (usually a leaf), independently of its apex or margin (and sometimes the base), so that an "elliptic leaf" may very well be pointed at both ends. A three-dimensional elliptical object is ellipsoid, while an object that is not a perfectly stretched circle is ovoid or obovoid.

Synonyms

Translations

in math — see elliptic

Noun

elliptical (plural ellipticals)

  1. (astronomy) An elliptical galaxy
  2. An elliptical trainer

Translations

elliptical galaxy — see elliptical galaxy
elliptical trainer — see cross-trainer
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