ELLIPTIC

PRONUNCIATION: (i-LIP-tik)

MEANING: adjective
1. Marked by extreme economy of expression in speech or writing.
2. Cryptic, ambiguous, or obscure.
3. Marked by ellipsis: the omission of one or more words from a sentence.
4. Relating to or shaped like an ellipse.

ETYMOLOGY: From Greek eleipein (to come short). Earliest documented use: 1715. The word is also used in its longer form, elliptical.
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ELLIP-STIC - mouth-coloring for men

ELL-OPTIC - the twelfth lens

ELI-P.T.-IC - like freshman Physical Education at Yale