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.

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

This elliptical approach is in part its strength, subtly illuminating how trying to move past one tragedy may bring a family to the precipice of another.

From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 12, 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

Did such a law uniquely require that planets must follow elliptical orbits?

From "The Scientists" by John Gribbin