elliptical

[ ih-lip-ti-kuhl ]

adjective

1. pertaining to or having the form of an ellipse.
2. pertaining to or marked by grammatical ellipsis.
3. (of speech or writing) expressed with extreme or excessive economy; relieved of irrelevant matter:

   to converse in elliptical sentences.

4. (of a style of speaking or writing) tending to be ambiguous, cryptic, or obscure:

   an elliptical prose that is difficult to translate.

noun

1. Astronomy. elliptical galaxy.

elliptical

/ ɪˈlɪptɪkəl /

adjective

1. relating to or having the shape of an ellipse
2. relating to or resulting from ellipsis
3. of speech, literary style, etc
   1. very condensed or concise, often so as to be obscure or ambiguous
   2. circumlocutory or long-winded

Usage

The use of elliptical to mean circumlocutory should be avoided as it may be interpreted wrongly as meaning condensed or concise

Derived Forms

• elˈliptically, adverb
• elˈlipticalness, noun

Other Words From

• el·lipti·cal·ness noun
• nonel·liptic adjective
• nonel·lipti·cal adjective
• nonel·lipti·cal·ly adverb
• over·el·lipti·cal adjective
• over·el·lipti·cal·ly adverb
• subel·liptic adjective
• subel·lipti·cal adjective
• unel·lipti·cal adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of elliptical¹

1650–60; < Greek elleiptik ( ós ) defective ( ellipsis, -tic ) + -al ¹

Example Sentences

They don’t live inside your elliptical at home, and if you’re walking down the street alone, they won’t just infest your airways.

From Popular-Science

For extra credit, you looked at Al-Battani Island, which was elliptical rather than rectangular.

From FiveThirtyEight

The subjects were shown two at once, and were asked to choose, as quickly as possible, which one was actually the elliptical one.

From Nautilus

If we discard the elliptical eye-image, though, that should keep your decision from slowing down.

From Nautilus

The first is that the elliptical shape is abandoned early on in visual processing, replaced with belief that the manhole cover is circular, along with its orientation, color, and so on.

From Nautilus

“I would go with yoga, light weight training or some elliptical,” he says.

From The Daily Beast

The real heavyweights, though, are two giant elliptical galaxies known as NGC 4874 and NGC 4889.

From The Daily Beast

Some of the mutterings of Rust Cohle come from the perfectly elliptical and safely imprecise musings of Thomas Ligotti.

From The Daily Beast

My wife, at least, enjoys watching me flail about on our elliptical.

From The Daily Beast

The same goes for the elliptical machine hunger strike, which also comes off as tonally deficient, to say the least.

From The Daily Beast

In an orbit made elliptical by the planetary attraction the sun necessarily occupies one of the foci of the ellipse.

From Project Gutenberg

Ere liueEre I should live is required in full by strict grammar, but Fields verse is frequently elliptical.

From Project Gutenberg

Exclamation is an expression of strong emotion in abrupt, inverted, or elliptical phrases.

From Project Gutenberg

The entrance was a rather large elliptical arch; a man could enter by stooping.

From Project Gutenberg

The door was usually a piece of skin stretched over an elliptical frame.

From Project Gutenberg