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This word has a few uses. First, it describes a shape like a circle, an oval — planets travel around the sun in an "elliptical orbit," not a perfect circle. Second, in writing or speech, "elliptical" describes something that leaves out words on purpose, so the meaning is only hinted at — a more advanced, formal use you'll mostly meet in essays about writing style. Third, in a gym, "an elliptical" is the exercise machine where your feet move in a smooth oval path, like walking and cycling mixed together.
橢圓形的;(文體)省略式的;橢圓機
組成Comes from "ellipse," the name for the oval shape, from a Greek word meaning "falling short" — the shape is like a circle that falls short of being perfectly round.
原始詞典資料6 筆記錄
以下是外部詞典記錄的用法，原文照列，我們還沒有寫成教學內容。上面的說明才是我們自己寫的；有些用法可能上面已經講過了。
ellipticaladj/ɪˈlɪp.tɪk.əl/
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In a shape of, or reminding of, an ellipse; oval.
- 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.
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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.
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Concise, condensed.
- 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.
- 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.
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raremathematicssciencesElliptic.
ellipticalnoun/ɪˈlɪp.tɪk.əl/
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astronomynatural-sciencesAn elliptical galaxy.
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An elliptical trainer.
資料來源：英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary（CC BY-SA 4.0）。 原文照列，未經改寫。