Толковый словарь английского языка Oxford English Reference - ellipse

n. a regular oval, traced by a point moving in a plane so that the sum of its distances from two other points is constant, or resulting when a cone is cut by a plane which does not intersect the base and makes a smaller angle with the base than the side of the cone makes (cf. HYPERBOLA). Etymology: F f. L ellipsus f. Gk elleipsis f. elleipo come short f. en in + leipo leave ELLIPSIS n. (also ellipse) (pl. ellipses) 1 the omission from a sentence of words needed to complete the construction or sense. 2 the omission of a sentence at the end of a paragraph. 3 a set of three dots etc. indicating an omission.