椭

橢

tuǒ

adjective

Meanings

地球绕太阳的轨道是一个椭圆。

Dìqiú rào tàiyáng de guǐdào shì yí gè tuǒyuán.

The earth's orbit around the sun is an ellipse.

她在纸上画了一张椭圆形的脸。

Tā zài zhǐ shàng huà le yì zhāng tuǒyuánxíng de liǎn.

She drew an oval face on the paper.

usage

Bound character, used in 椭圆 (tuǒyuán, ellipse) and 椭圆形 (tuǒyuánxíng, oval-shaped). It is the standard math and everyday word for an oval.

radical

木 mù

wood; tree

The wood radical 木 on the left points to the original sense: a long, oval-shaped wooden container. That shape became today's meaning of ellipse.

phonetic

陏 duò

phonetic element

The right side is a 隋-related sound element; its older reading underlies the modern tuǒ. It contributes only the pronunciation.

椭 tuǒ