elliptical

Meanings

1. 1
   adj

   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.

2. 2
   adj

   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.

3. 3
   adj

   Concise, condensed.

   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.

4. 4
   adj

   characterized by extreme economy of expression or omission of superfluous elements

From elliptic + -al, from Ancient Greek ἐλλειπτικός (elleiptikós), from ἐλλείπω (elleípō, “I leave out, omit”).

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