Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Resembling an egg in shape.
- adj. Resembling an ellipse in shape; elliptical.
- n. An egg-shaped or elliptical form or figure.
- n. An elliptical track, as for racing or athletic events.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Of or pertaining to an egg.
- Having the shape of or resembling the longitudinal section of an egg; hence, elliptical.
- In zoology and botany, broadly elliptical, or elliptical with the breadth considerably more than half the length. Oval notes a shape or figure resembling a compressed circle (or ellipse), equally rounded at both ends; ovate notes the true egg shape, which is smaller at one end than at the other. See
egg-shaped . - n. A figure in the general shape of the lengthwise outline of an egg, or resembling the longitudinal section of an egg. A closed curve everywhere convex, without nodes, and more pointed at one end than at the other.
- n. Something which has such a shape, as a plot of ground, or an open place in a city: as, Berkeley oval; “The Oval” at Kensington, London.
- n. Specifically, same as cartouche, 4.
- n. See the adjectives.
- Of, pertaining to, or used in an ovation: as, triumphal, oval, and civil crowns.
- n. Specifically, in athletics, an elliptical field, or one on which an elliptical track is laid out.
Wiktionary
- n. A shape rather like an egg or an ellipse.
- n. A sporting arena etc. of this shape.
- adj. Having the shape of an oval.
- adj. Of or pertaining to an ovum.
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. obsolete Of or pertaining to eggs; done in the egg, or inception.
- adj. Having the figure of an egg; oblong and curvilinear, with one end broader than the other, or with both ends of about the same breadth; in popular usage, elliptical.
- adj. (Bot.) Broadly elliptical.
- n. A body or figure in the shape of an egg, or popularly, of an ellipse.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a closed plane curve resulting from the intersection of a circular cone and a plane cutting completely through it
- adj. rounded like an egg
Etymologies
- Medieval Latin ōvālis, from Latin ōvum, egg; see awi- in Indo-European roots. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“You are banned for life because of your indecent activities in oval office.”
“The windows were custom built in oval shapes; the doors were of inlaid panels with rounded corners that meant all the doorjambs and casings had to be hand carved.”
“Only legacy he can give at this time is to clear the table in oval office for Obama and get out of the way. —”
The Early Word: A Tale of Two Presidents - The Caucus Blog - NYTimes.com
“The third baker, if I recall correctly, then rolled the rumpled cylinder flat into a large, thin oval, but using granulated sugar as the rolling medium.”
“Hot chocolate is served at his restaurants in oval-shaped cups tapered at one end called "hug mugs" that are cradled in hands.”
“To allow a wide hook gap, the top of the oval is flattened, while the rounded bottom acts as a keel to hold the jig upright.”
““The empty front lawn requiring mowing, watering and weeding previously on this location has been removed,” reads a placard set amid veggies in oval planting beds fronting the street.”
“Today, the Ford oval is a familiar sight in more than 200 countries and territories around the world, and the makeup of Ford's worldwide management team represents a rich diversity of nationalities and cultures.”
The Auto Industry: Structuring for Survival in the Global Market of the '90s
“A certain oval basket with a vaulted cover, of which specimens are preserved in the British Museum, seems still to be the pattern most in demand at Assûan.”
“An oval is made by tracing two circles, the circumscribing line of one of which just touches the centre of the other; short lines are afterwards made at the top and bottom, and the central lines are obliterated.”
The Lady's Country Companion: or, How to Enjoy a Country Life Rationally
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘oval’.
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shapes
words for shape
( randomness, visual. descriptive )triangular, conical, round, broad, congruous, hexagonal, globular, curved, oval, rectangular, parallel, crumpled and 142 more...
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AGRI - horse breeding
place bet, Przewalski's horse, piaffe, genus Claviceps, stadium jumping, draft animal, snaffle bit, noseband, equestrian sport, endurance riding, curb bit, dressage and 678 more...
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Junk
walrus, fascination, broadway, fickle, downturn, bridge, gargle, rotunda, mesh, fab, shortlife, strumming and 304 more...
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cloudjuice's Words
schadenfreude, sordid, promulgate, erratic, erroneous, amalgamate, sesquipedalian, incongruous, psychosis, etymology, simulacrum, serendipity and 988 more...
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mandarine's Words
antepenultimate, metonymy, synecdoche, pop, kern, inherit, clique, scrumptious, macerate, murmur, kerning, veranda and 1068 more...
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littlemasumi's list
thaumatolatry, liminality, sophistry, myopia, prosopopeia, palimpsest, imbroglio, ephemeral, sentient, prescient, vicissitude, zeitgeist and 103 more...
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London Underground Stations
Tagged with which London Underground line it is part of. Some are permanently closed and tagged as such. Some are open but have closed portions and are tagged "closed platforms."
Some ...woodside park, woodford, wood green, wimbledon park, wimbledon, willesden junction, willesden green, whitechapel, white city, westminster, west ferry, westbourne park and 326 more...
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nfrank's Words
antediluvian, equivocate, inchoate, denouement, effulgent, edify, endemic, palimpsest, apropos, circumnavigate, circumlocution, cognoscente and 484 more...
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Redatt's Words
crytoscopophilia, jiggle, redatt, brunt, dolt, ephemeral, fissure, helix, isotope, kaleidoscope, lemming, monied and 14 more...
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Prosie: Pornographie?
By Florence King (from Willard Espy's "Words at Play")
THE HARD-BOILED SEDUCTION OF A SOFT-BOILED EGG
I took the glistening, virginally white oval out of the fiercely bubbling...whisper, surface, gush, lubricious, rigid, secret, tender, gorgeous, sturdy, contour, oval, seduction
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leaf morphology
the concise british flora in colour (w. keble martin)
undulate, truncate, trifoliate, subulate, spathulate, serrate, sagittate, rhomboidal, retuse, reniform, pinnate, perfoliate and 30 more...
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The Kindest Cut
Gem cuts, old and new.
round brilliant, oval, emerald, cushion, square, princess, cabochon, pear, marquise, trilliant, heart, buff top and 49 more...
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stumblepeach - words
miasma, neologism, snuggery, hickory, frieze, slant, conspicuous, trullo, wikiality, truthiness, sequitur, monolith and 34 more...
Tweets
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