different between ecliptic vs elliptical

English

Alternative forms

• ecliptick (obsolete)

Etymology

So named because an eclipse can occur only when the Moon lies on this plane.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /??kl?p.t?k/

Noun

ecliptic (plural ecliptics)

1. (astronomy) The apparent annual path of the Sun in the sky. More accurately, it is the intersection of the celestial sphere with the plane of the ecliptic, which is the geometric plane containing the mean orbit of the Earth around the Sun.
2. (geometry) A great circle drawn on a terrestrial globe, used for illustrating and solving astronomical problems.

Translations

Adjective

ecliptic (not comparable)

1. Relating to an eclipse or the ecliptic.

Romanian

Etymology

From French écliptique

Adjective

ecliptic m or n (feminine singular ecliptic?, masculine plural ecliptici, feminine and neuter plural ecliptice)

1. ecliptic

Declension

English

Etymology

elliptic +? -al, from Ancient Greek ??????????? (elleiptikós), from ??????? (elleíp?, “I leave out, omit”). Surface analysis ellipse +? -ical.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /??l?p.t?k.?l/
• (US) IPA^(key): /??l?p.t?.k?l/, /??l?p.t?.k?l/

Adjective

elliptical (comparative more elliptical, superlative most elliptical)

1. In a shape of, or reminding of, an ellipse; oval.
   • 1876, Edward Roth (translator), All Around the Moon, Chapter XIX,

     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. 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. -- Edmund Wilson

3. (of speech) Concise, condensed.
   • 1903, Gilbert Keith Chesterton, Robert Browning, Chapter VI,

     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.

   • early XX c., The Making of a New Yorker, by O. Henry

     He was called a tramp; but that was only an elliptical way of saying that he was a philosopher, an artist, a traveller, a naturalist and a discoverer.

4. (mathematics, rare) Elliptic.

Usage notes

• In botanical usage, elliptic(al) refers only to the general shape of the object (usually a leaf), independently of its apex or margin (and sometimes the base), so that an "elliptic leaf" may very well be pointed at both ends. A three-dimensional elliptical object is ellipsoid, while an object that is not a perfectly stretched circle is ovoid or obovoid.

Synonyms

• elliptic

Translations

Noun

elliptical (plural ellipticals)

1. (astronomy) An elliptical galaxy.
2. An elliptical trainer.

Translations