OBLONG

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does oblong mean? 

• OBLONG (noun)
  The noun OBLONG has 1 sense:

1. a plane figure that deviates from a square or circle due to elongation

  Familiarity information: OBLONG used as a noun is very rare.

• OBLONG (adjective)
  The adjective OBLONG has 2 senses:

1. (of a leaf shape) having a somewhat elongated form with approximately parallel sides

2. deviating from a square or circle or sphere by being elongated in one direction

  Familiarity information: OBLONG used as an adjective is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• OBLONG (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A plane figure that deviates from a square or circle due to elongation

Classified under:

Nouns denoting two and three dimensional shapes

Hypernyms ("oblong" is a kind of...):

plane figure; two-dimensional figure (a two-dimensional shape)

Derivation:

oblong (deviating from a square or circle or sphere by being elongated in one direction)

• OBLONG (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

(of a leaf shape) having a somewhat elongated form with approximately parallel sides

Similar:

simple; unsubdivided ((botany) of leaf shapes; of leaves having no divisions or subdivisions)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Deviating from a square or circle or sphere by being elongated in one direction

Similar:

long (primarily spatial sense; of relatively great or greater than average spatial extension or extension as specified)

Derivation:

oblong (a plane figure that deviates from a square or circle due to elongation)

oblongness (the property of being shaped like a rectangle)

 Context examples 

Another dwarf planet, named Haumea, has an oblong shape that is wider on its long axis than 2007 OR10, but its overall volume is smaller.

(2007 OR10: Largest Unnamed World in the Solar System, NASA)

One of two small oblong bones placed side by side at the middle and upper part of the face.

(Nasal Bone, NCI Thesaurus)

At that moment I saw the reflection of the visage and features quite distinctly in the dark oblong glass.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

So if Mimas' core is oblong in shape, it likely represents a record of the moon's formation, frozen in time.

(Saturn Moon May Hide a 'Fossil' Core or an Ocean, NASA)

That night, when supper was finished and they sat on the oblong box and pulled at their pipes, the circle of gleaming eyes drew in even closer than before.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

This time we had all had a good sleep, for the grey of the coming dawn was making the windows into sharp oblongs, and the gas flame was like a speck rather than a disc of light.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

Fanny's imagination had prepared her for something grander than a mere spacious, oblong room, fitted up for the purpose of devotion: with nothing more striking or more solemn than the profusion of mahogany, and the crimson velvet cushions appearing over the ledge of the family gallery above.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

It has geologically distinct hemispheres, with smooth lowlands in the north and cratered, high-elevation terrain in the south. The red planet also has two small oddly-shaped oblong moons and a composition that sets it apart from that of the Earth.

(Ancient Asteroid Impact Explains Martian Geological Mysteries, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

And then, across the narrow oblong box, each nodded to the other.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

Although an ocean within Mimas would be a surprise, the authors found that the interior model they considered for an oblong core ought to give the moon a slightly different shape than what is observed.

(Saturn Moon May Hide a 'Fossil' Core or an Ocean, NASA)