oval
adjective
having the general form, shape, or outline of an egg; egg-shaped.
oval
American
[oh-vuhl]
/ ˈoʊ vəl /
adjective
-
having the general form, shape, or outline of an egg; egg-shaped.
-
ellipsoidal or elliptical.
noun
-
ovals
plural
-
an object of oval shape.
-
a body or plane figure that is oval in shape or outline.
-
an elliptical field or a field on which an elliptical track is laid out, as for athletic contests.
-
Informal. a football.
oval
1
British
/ ˈəʊvəl, əʊˈvælɪtɪ /
adjective
noun
Oval
2
British
/ ˈəʊvəl /
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
-
ovalnessnoun
-
semiovalnessnoun
-
half-ovaladjective
-
pseudoovaladjective
-
semiovaladjective
-
ovallyadverb
-
pseudoovallyadverb
-
semiovallyadverb
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of oval
1560–70; < New Latin ōvālis, equivalent to Latin ōv ( um ) egg 1 + -ālis -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.
See Examples For:
At a Knicks–Pacers game, she took photos of everything on a digital camera, and she wore nonrecording oval cat-eye sunglasses on her Citi Bike date with Timothée Chalamet.
From Slate ● Aug. 5, 2026
Critically, the oval shape allowed it to occupy less stage depth.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 21, 2026
A keen Chelsea fan, she played football alongside her rugby until a move to Hartpury College and its dedicated rugby programme at 16 focused her exclusively on all matters oval.
From BBC ● May 6, 2026
The human doctor with 40 years of experience was right—the small oval in my right breast didn’t look “suspicious.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 4, 2026
She stood in front of a small photograph in an oval frame.
From "City of the Plague God" by Sarwat Chadda
Walter's 80 off just 46 balls set up Super Giants' imposing total of 186-4 at The Oval, before England seamer Josh Tongue led the bowling unit with an impressive 4-26 in Sunrisers' chase.
From BBC ● Aug. 14, 2026
Before that, however, I picked up a greeting card, which featured a pop-up display of Donald and Melania Trump in the Oval Office.
From Slate ● Aug. 14, 2026
While announcing the executive orders from the Oval Office on Thursday, Trump said that hundreds of thousands of babies have been born through birth tourism in the US.
From BBC ● Aug. 6, 2026
"We have to be careful in both ways. We don't want to restrict them where all of a sudden we come in second to China," he told reporters in the Oval Office last week.
From Barron's ● Aug. 5, 2026
In private Oval Office meetings, Nixon, Bob Haldeman, and John Ehrlichman discussed options for damage control.
From "Most Dangerous: Daniel Ellsberg and the Secret History of the Vietnam War" by Steve Sheinkin
The Pettit National Ice Center, in Milwaukee, is one of two Olympic-grade long-track ovals in the entire U.S.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 11, 2026
The orange ovals here show how a perfect circle on the globe is distorted depending on where it is located.
From Slate ● Jan. 21, 2026
Schumacher will compete in his first oval races, with six ovals on the 17-race IndyCar schedule, including the feature Indianapolis 500 next May 24.
From Barron's ● Nov. 24, 2025
One species they were interested in but dropped for this reason was leopard sharks, a striking fish adorned with spots and dark ovals stretched in neat rows across its back.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 6, 2025
The patterns on the snakes’ skins were perfect, repeating endlessly in coils and stripes and ovals and diamonds, in all the colors of the island.
From "Orphan Island" by Laurel Snyder
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.
