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

Librettist Gene Scheer distilled Michael Chabon’s sprawling, Pulitzer Prize-winning book from 2000 into a straightforward, primary-colored plot, losing much of its magical, elliptical atmosphere.

From The Wall Street Journal • Sep. 23, 2025

But occasionally a passing star makes a gravitational flurry and commotion in the cometary cloud, and a group of comets finds itself in highly elliptical orbits, plunging toward the Sun.

From "Cosmos" by Carl Sagan