elliptical

comparative more elliptical · superlative most elliptical

1. In a shape of, or reminding of, an ellipse; oval.

   Having admitted that the projectile was describing an orbit around the moon, this orbit must necessarily be elliptical; science proves that it must be so.

   1876, “Chapter XIX”, in Edward Roth, transl., All Around the Moon

2. Of, or showing ellipsis; having a word or words omitted.

   If he is sometimes elliptical and obscure, it is because he has so much to tell us.

   1940, Edmund Wilson, To the Finland Station

3. Concise, condensed.

   He was called a tramp; but that was only an elliptical way of saying that he was a philosopher, an artist, a traveller, a naturalist and a discoverer.

   early 20th century, O. Henry, The Making of a New Yorker

   1 more example

   Browning's dark and elliptical mode of speech, like his love of the grotesque, was simply a characteristic of his, a trick of his temperament, and had little or nothing to do with whether what he was expressing was profound or superficial.

   1903, Gilbert Keith Chesterton, “Chapter VI”, in Robert Browning

4. raremathematicsElliptic.
5. human sciencesrelating to or containing an instance of ellipsis.

   Elliptical processes capitalize on the redundancy of certain kinds of information in certain contexts, and permit an economy of expression by omitting the linguistic structures that would otherwise be required to express this information.

   2001, Jason Merchant, The Syntax of Silence, →DOI, page 1

plural ellipticals

1. astronomyAn elliptical galaxy.
2. An elliptical trainer.