ELLIPSE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does ellipse mean? 

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

1. a closed plane curve resulting from the intersection of a circular cone and a plane cutting completely through it

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

 Dictionary entry details 

• ELLIPSE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A closed plane curve resulting from the intersection of a circular cone and a plane cutting completely through it

Classified under:

Nouns denoting two and three dimensional shapes

Synonyms:

ellipse; oval

Context example:

the sums of the distances from the foci to any point on an ellipse is constant

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

conic; conic section ((geometry) a curve generated by the intersection of a plane and a circular cone)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "ellipse"):

circle (ellipse in which the two axes are of equal length; a plane curve generated by one point moving at a constant distance from a fixed point)

Derivation:

elliptic; elliptical (rounded like an egg)

 Context examples 

A surface whose plane sections are all ellipses or circles.

(Ellipsoid, NCI Thesaurus)

The shape of either an oval or an ellipse.

(Oval, NCI Thesaurus)

The orbit of Mimas is very slightly stretched out, forming an ellipse rather than a perfect circle.

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

A surgical procedure in which the skin is cut in a geometrical fashion resembling an ellipse.

(Elliptical Skin Excision, NCI Thesaurus)

The amount that the earth's revolution deviates from a circular path; the variation of an ellipse from a circle, where a circle has an eccentricity of 0.

(Eccentricity, NOAA Paleoclimate Glossary)

If they would, for example, praise the beauty of a woman, or any other animal, they describe it by rhombs, circles, parallelograms, ellipses, and other geometrical terms, or by words of art drawn from music, needless here to repeat.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)