Lexic.us

Definition of Ellipse

1. Noun. A closed plane curve resulting from the intersection of a circular cone and a plane cutting completely through it. "The sums of the distances from the foci to any point on an ellipse is constant"

Definition of Ellipse

1. n. An oval or oblong figure, bounded by a regular curve, which corresponds to an oblique projection of a circle, or an oblique section of a cone through its opposite sides. The greatest diameter of the ellipse is the major axis, and the least diameter is the minor axis. See Conic section, under Conic, and cf. Focus.

Definition of Ellipse

1. Noun. (geometry) A closed curve, the locus of a point such that the sum of the distances from that point to two other fixed points (called the foci of the ellipse) is constant; equivalently, the conic section that is the intersection of a cone with a plane that does not intersect the base of the cone. ¹

2. Verb. (context: grammar) To remove from a phrase a word which is grammatically needed, but which is clearly understood without having to be stated. ¹

¹ Source: wiktionary.com

Definition of Ellipse

1. a type of plane curve [n -S]

Medical Definition of Ellipse

1. 1. An oval or oblong figure, bounded by a regular curve, which corresponds to an oblique projection of a circle, or an oblique section of a cone through its opposite sides. The greatest diameter of the ellipse is the major axis, and the least diameter is the minor axis. See Conic section, under Conic, and cf. Focus. 2. Omission. See Ellipsis. 3. The elliptical orbit of a planet. "The Sun flies forward to his brother Sun; The dark Earth follows wheeled in her ellipse." (Tennyson) Origin: Gr, prop, a defect, the inclination of the ellipse to the base of the cone being in defect when compared with that of the side to the base: cf. F. Ellipse. See Ellipsis. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998)

Lexicographical Neighbors of Ellipse

Literary usage of Ellipse

Below you will find example usage of this term as found in modern and/or classical literature:

1. Higher Mathematics for Students of Chemistry and Physics: With Special by Joseph William Mellor (1902)
"The ellipse and its Equation. .•In ellipse is a curve such that the sum of the distances of any point on the curve from two given points is always the same. ..."

2. Plane and Solid Analytic Geometry by William Fogg Osgood, William Caspar Graustein (1921)
"Diameters of an ellipse. By the axes of an ellipse we may mean either the transverse and conjugate axes, indefinite straight lines, or the major and minor ..."

3. A Treatise on Conic Sections: Containing an Account of Some of the Most by George Salmon (1904)
"We saw that the equation referred to the axes was ot' the form Ax*+By*=C, B being positive in the case of the ellipse, and negative in that of the hyperbola ..."

4. Transactions of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers by American Society of Mechanical Engineers (1887)
"If time angle FGH be bisected by the line ST, said line will be tangent to tIme ellipse at time point G and will always be at right angles to time line FH ..."

5. A New English Grammar, Logical and Historical by Henry Sweet (1900)
"When a language drops words in groups and sentences because these words are not absolutely required to make sense, we have the phenomenon of ellipse (111). ..."

6. A History of Greek Mathematics by Thomas Little Heath (1921)
"(2) In the case of the hyperbola and ellipse, HV:PV=BF:FA, VK:1VV=FC:AF. Therefore QV-: PV. P'V = HV. VK: PV. P'V = BF.FC:AF* = PL: PP, by hypothesis, ..."

7. Analytic Geometry by Lewis Parker Siceloff, George Wentworth, David Eugene Smith (1922)
"The segments A1 A and B'B are called respectively the major axis and the minor axis of the ellipse. The ends A' and A of the major axis are called the ..."

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