ovate
Americanadjective
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Botany.
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having a shape like the longitudinal section of an egg.
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having such a shape with the broader end at the base, as a leaf.
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adjective
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shaped like an egg
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(esp of a leaf) shaped like the longitudinal section of an egg, with the broader end at the base Compare obovate
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of ovate
1750–60; < Latin ōvātus, equivalent to ōv ( um ) egg 1 + -ātus -ate 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.
The Yankton Sioux Tribe voted Friday to ban Noem from their land in southeastern South Dakota just a few days after the Sisseton-Wahpeton Ovate tribe took the same action.
From Seattle Times • May 11, 2024
Ovate with the broader end towards the apex.
From Handbook of the Trees of New England by Dame, Lorin Low
Ovate, yes; or whatever just the right word may be.
From Bertram Cope's Year by Fuller, Henry Blake
Class II.—Conical, tapering decidedly toward the eye, and becoming Ovate when larger in the middle and tapering to each end, the axial diameter being the shorter.
From American Pomology Apples by Warder, J. A.
Ovate, shaped like an egg, with the broader end downwards; or, in plain surfaces, such as leaves, like the section of an egg lengthwise, 52.
From The Elements of Botany For Beginners and For Schools by Gray, Asa
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.
