oval

Having the shape of an oval.

Adjective

  1. Having the shape of an oval.
  2. Of or pertaining to an ovum.
    • oval conceptions
    • Every congenital abnormality is doubtless due to a peculiarity in the sperm or oval elements or in their mingling, or to some disturbance in their early development. - 1901, Havelock Ellis, Sexual inversion, page 187:

Origin

From Late Latin ovalis, from ovum; cognate with French and Italian ovale, Dutch ovaal. From 1570.

Forms

more oval most oval

Synonyms

ovular ovate ovoid ovaline elliptical egg-shaped

Related

ovoid ovum

Derived

bioval circumoval monoval nonoval oboval ovalescent ovaliform ovaline ovalisation ovalish ovality ovalization ovalize ovallike ovalling ovally ovalness ovalocyte ovaloid oval-shaped perioval plurioval semioval squoval

Noun

  1. An elongated round shape resembling an ellipse or an egg.
    • Near-synonym: ellipse

    Synonyms: ellipse

    Coordinate Terms: circle

    1. A two-dimensional one.

    2. A three-dimensional one.

      Coordinate Terms: ball

  2. A thing having such a shape, such as an arena.
    • At the far end of the wide corridor were the doors of a ward. The panels were frosted save for ovals of clear glass at face level. - 1951, John Wyndham, The Day of the Triffids, Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, published...
  3. A sports field, typically but not exclusively oval in shape.
  4. In a projective plane, a set of points such that no three are collinear and there is a unique tangent line at each point.

Forms

ovals

Derived

Cassinian oval Cassini oval flat oval hyperoval oval of Cassini oval squid oval window roval tri-oval