ellipse

[ ih-lips ]

/ ɪˈlɪps /

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See synonyms for: ellipse / ellipses on Thesaurus.com

noun Geometry.

a plane curve such that the sums of the distances of each point in its periphery from two fixed points, the foci, are equal. It is a conic section formed by the intersection of a right circular cone by a plane that cuts the axis and the surface of the cone. Typical equation: (x2/a2) + (y2/b2) = 1. If a = b the ellipse is a circle.

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In the UK, COTTON CANDY is more commonly known as…

candystring

candyfloss

candypuff

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Origin of ellipse

1745–55; <French <Latin ellīpsisellipsis; or by back formation from the plural ellipses

Words nearby ellipse

Ellice Islands, Ellicott City, Ellington, Ellington, Duke, Elliott, ellipse, ellipsis, ellipsograph, ellipsoid, ellipsoidal, ellipsoid of revolution

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use ellipse in a sentence

NASA’s 1970s Viking Mars missions had an estimated landing ellipse of 280x100km.
‘7 Minutes of Terror’: The Technology Perseverance Will Need to Survive Landing on Mars|Chris James|February 18, 2021|Singularity Hub
That spread, Rothermel found, drove outward in a thin, expanding edge along an ellipse.
What the complex math of fire modeling tells us about the future of California’s forests|Amy Nordrum|January 18, 2021|MIT Technology Review
That something, according to new simulations from Nesvorny, is most likely a Neptune that slipped outward on an orbit with a just-so shape—one that falls somewhere between a perfect circle and a more severely squashed ellipse.
Neptune’s bumpy childhood could reveal our solar system’s missing planets|Charlie Wood|January 8, 2021|Popular-Science
The eccentricity of an ellipse is a measure of how stretched out it is.
We’re the Cosmic 1 Percent But Our Solar System Isn’t a Complete Weirdo - Facts So Romantic|Sean Raymond|January 5, 2021|Nautilus

Similarly, imagine you are presented with an actual ellipse, with the other object being an ellipse-shaped tilted coin.
This Vision Experiment Resolved a Centuries-Old Philosophical Debate - Facts So Romantic|Jim Davies|August 14, 2020|Nautilus
A hole, though shaped like an ellipse, in which this well-hung stud had placed it would look as if a compass traced it.
Read This and Blush: Naughty Medieval French Tales|Yunte Huang|June 13, 2013|DAILY BEAST
On Dec. 18, a triumphant Johnson appeared on the Ellipse outside the White House to light the national Christmas tree.
The Mad Men Era: When Hope Was Cheap|Jonathan Darman|March 19, 2012|DAILY BEAST
In an orbit made elliptical by the planetary attraction the sun necessarily occupies one of the foci of the ellipse.
Outlines of the Earth's History|Nathaniel Southgate Shaler
The longer axis of the ellipse is itself in constant motion in the direction in which the earth travels.
Outlines of the Earth's History|Nathaniel Southgate Shaler
The form is an ellipse with axes of 620 and 513 feet, the building covering nearly six acres of ground.
The Private Life of the Romans|Harold Whetstone Johnston
The disk was an impossibly long ellipse now, surrounded by a vast array of smaller bodies, fragments and contents of the ship.
Greylorn|John Keith Laumer
An ellipse is a figure bounded by a continuous curve, whose nature will be shown presently.
Mechanical Drawing Self-Taught|Joshua Rose

British Dictionary definitions for ellipse

ellipse

/ (ɪˈlɪps) /

noun

a closed conic section shaped like a flattened circle and formed by an inclined plane that does not cut the base of the cone. Standard equation x ²/ a ² + y ²/ b ² = 1, where 2 a and 2 b are the lengths of the major and minor axes. Area: π ab

Word Origin for ellipse

C18: back formation from ellipsis

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Scientific definitions for ellipse

ellipse

[ ĭ-lĭps′ ]

A closed, symmetric curve shaped like an oval, which can be formed by intersecting a cone with a plane that is not parallel or perpendicular to the cone's base. The sum of the distances of any point on an ellipse from two fixed points (called the foci) remains constant no matter where the point is on the curve.

Cultural definitions for ellipse

ellipse

[ (i-lips) ]

In geometry, a curve traced out by a point that is required to move so that the sum of its distances from two fixed points (called foci) remains constant. If the foci are identical with each other, the ellipse is a circle; if the two foci are distinct from each other, the ellipse looks like a squashed or elongated circle.

notes for ellipse

The orbits of the planets and of many comets are ellipses.

ellipse

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Origin of ellipse

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How to use ellipse in a sentence

British Dictionary definitions for ellipse

Word Origin for ellipse

Scientific definitions for ellipse

Cultural definitions for ellipse

notes for ellipse