ELLIPTICAL

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does elliptical mean? 

• ELLIPTICAL (adjective)
  The adjective ELLIPTICAL has 2 senses:

1. rounded like an egg

2. characterized by extreme economy of expression or omission of superfluous elements

  Familiarity information: ELLIPTICAL used as an adjective is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• ELLIPTICAL (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Rounded like an egg

Synonyms:

egg-shaped; elliptic; elliptical; oval; oval-shaped; ovate; oviform; ovoid; prolate

Similar:

rounded (curving and somewhat round in shape rather than jagged)

Derivation:

ellipse (a closed plane curve resulting from the intersection of a circular cone and a plane cutting completely through it)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Characterized by extreme economy of expression or omission of superfluous elements

Synonyms:

elliptic; elliptical

Context example:

the explanation was concise, even elliptical to the verge of obscurity

Similar:

concise (expressing much in few words)

 Context examples 

According to this theory, the companion would have to be in an elliptical orbit that carries it close to the red giant's puffed-up atmosphere every 8.5 years.

(Hubble Detects Giant 'Cannonballs' Shooting from Star, NASA)

But how do these young, massive, compact disks evolve into the elliptical galaxies we see in the present-day universe?

(Massive Dead Disk Galaxy Challenges Theories of Galaxy Evolution, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

Because of its remoteness, Haumea takes 284 years to rotate around the Sun, in an elliptical orbit.

(Brazil astronomers discover ring around dwarf planet near Pluto, Agência Brasil)

That giant black hole, with a mass of 6.5 billion Suns, is located in the elliptical galaxy Messier 87 (M87).

(The Giant Galaxy Around the Giant Black Hole, NASA)

The stunning new image shows the shadow of the supermassive black hole in the center of Messier 87 (M87), an elliptical galaxy some 55 million light-years from Earth.

(Black Hole Image Makes History, NASA)

MAVEN, with an elliptical orbit around Mars, has an orbit that crosses those of other spacecraft and the moon Phobos many times over the course of a year.

(NASA Orbiter Steers Clear of Mars Moon Phobos, NASA)

The resulting image of the Saturn Nebula reveals many intricate structures, including an elliptical inner shell, an outer shell, and a halo.

(The Strange Structures of the Saturn Nebula, ESO)

The galaxy, an elliptical galaxy called 0402+379, after its location in the sky, was first observed in 1995.

(First-Ever Black-Hole 'Visual Binary' Revealed, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

Another idea is that gas moving toward the giant elliptical NGC 1052 may have fragmented and formed NGC 1052-DF2.

(Dark Matter Goes Missing in Oddball Galaxy, NASA)

The point at which the elliptical shaped area of growth inhibition meets the strip is the minimum inhibitory concentration of the drug of interest.

(Epsilometry, NCI Thesaurus)