Hypertext Webster Gateway: "Ellipse"
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) (web1913)
Ellipse \El*lipse"\, n. [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}.]
1. (Geom.) 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. (Gram.) 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.
From WordNet (r) 1.7 (wn)
ellipse
n : 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" [syn: {oval}]
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