adjective Also el·lip·tic.
- pertaining to or having the form of an ellipse.
- pertaining to or marked by grammatical ellipsis.
- (of speech or writing) expressed with extreme or excessive economy; relieved of irrelevant matter: to converse in elliptical sentences.
- (of a style of speaking or writing) tending to be ambiguous, cryptic, or obscure: an elliptical prose that is difficult to translate.
noun
- Astronomy. elliptical galaxy.
adjective
- relating to or having the shape of an ellipse
- relating to or resulting from ellipsis
- (of speech, literary style, etc)
- very condensed or concise, often so as to be obscure or ambiguous
- circumlocutory or long-winded
1726, from Greek elleiptikos “pertaining to an ellipse,” from elleipein (see ellipsis).
1650s, “elliptic in shape;” see elliptic + -al (1). Grammatical sense of “missing essential words or phrases” is recorded from 1778 (see ellipsis). Related: Elliptically.