elliptical

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.

Published when its author was 28 years old, the slim, elliptical volume played a central role in Camus winning the Nobel Prize for literature at a time when that distinction still meant something.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 2, 2026

Some exoplanets follow highly elliptical orbits, meaning the amount of heat they receive from their star changes significantly over time.

From Science Daily • Mar. 25, 2026

Supermoon's occur because the Moon's orbit around Earth is not perfectly circular, but slightly elliptical - meaning it is sometimes closer to us than at other times.

From BBC • Dec. 5, 2025

More than 100 of Cheever’s stories appeared in the New Yorker from the 1940s into the 1980s, making him a sort of ambassador for that magazine’s brand of polished, elliptical fiction.

From The Wall Street Journal • Oct. 17, 2025

If the earth had been a flat disk, the shadow would have been elongated and elliptical, unless the eclipse always occurred at a time when the sun was directly under the center of the disk.

From "A Brief History of Time: And Other Essays" by Stephen Hawking