椭

橢

tuǒ

adjective

Meanings

HSK 6

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.

HSK 7-9

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 (ellipse) and 椭圆形 (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