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Obovate vs Elliptical - What's the difference?

obovate | elliptical |

As adjectives the difference between obovate and elliptical

is that obovate is shaped like an egg, with the broad extremity located away from the base while elliptical is in a shape reminding of an ellipse; oval.

As a noun elliptical is

an elliptical galaxy.

obovate

English

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • (botany, mycology) Shaped like an egg, with the broad extremity located away from the base.
  • Derived terms

    * obovately

    elliptical

    English

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • In a shape reminding of an ellipse; oval.
  • * 1876 , Edward Roth (translator), ,
  • 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.
  • 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. --
  • (of speech) Concise, condensed.
  • * 1903 , ,
  • 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.
  • * early XX c. , , by O. Henry
  • 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.
  • (mathematics, rare)
  • Being flat and in the shape of a twice-symmetrical ellipse; oval.
  • Synonyms

    * elliptic

    Usage notes

    * In botanical usage, elliptic(al) refers only to the general shape of the object (usually a leaf), independently of its apex or margin (and sometimes the base), so that an "elliptic leaf" may very well be pointed at both ends. A three-dimensional elliptical object is ellipsoid, while an object that is not a perfectly stretched circle is ovoid or obovoid.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (astronomy) An elliptical galaxy
  • An elliptical trainer