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.
After making a dinner one night, the ring asked whether I’d been on the elliptical.
From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 29, 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
This elliptical approach is in part its strength, subtly illuminating how trying to move past one tragedy may bring a family to the precipice of another.
From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 12, 2026
The Moon has an elliptical orbit and when it is at its closest point to the Earth we say that it is in perigee.
From BBC • Sep. 12, 2025
M31 has two small satellites, dwarf elliptical galaxies bound to it by gravity, by the identical law of physics that tends to keep me in my chair.
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.
