elliptical
Americanadjective
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pertaining to or having the form of an ellipse.
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pertaining to or marked by grammatical ellipsis.
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(of speech or writing) expressed with extreme or excessive economy; relieved of irrelevant matter.
to converse in elliptical sentences.
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(of a style of speaking or writing) tending to be ambiguous, cryptic, or obscure.
an elliptical prose that is difficult to translate.
noun
adjective
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relating to or having the shape of an ellipse
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relating to or resulting from ellipsis
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very condensed or concise, often so as to be obscure or ambiguous
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circumlocutory or long-winded
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Usage
The use of elliptical to mean circumlocutory should be avoided as it may be interpreted wrongly as meaning condensed or concise
Other Word Forms
- elliptically adverb
- ellipticalness noun
- nonelliptic adjective
- nonelliptical adjective
- nonelliptically adverb
- overelliptical adjective
- overelliptically adverb
- subelliptic adjective
- subelliptical adjective
- unelliptical adjective
Etymology
Origin of elliptical
1650–60; < Greek elleiptik ( ós ) defective ( ellipsis, -tic ) + -al 1
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Published when its author was 28 years old, the slim, elliptical volume played a central role in Camus winning the Nobel Prize for literature at a time when that distinction still meant something.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 2, 2026
Some exoplanets follow highly elliptical orbits, meaning the amount of heat they receive from their star changes significantly over time.
From Science Daily • Mar. 25, 2026
Lynne Ramsay’s film is an elliptical, claustrophobic portrait of postpartum delirium.
From Los Angeles Times • Dec. 18, 2025
The Moon does not orbit the earth in a perfect circle but has more of an egg-shaped, elliptical orbit.
From BBC • Nov. 2, 2025
Kepler found something different for elliptical orbits: As the planet moves along its orbit, it sweeps out a little wedge-shaped area within the ellipse.
From "Cosmos" by Carl Sagan
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
