elliptical galaxy

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• noun A galaxy with an elliptical shape, containing relatively little gas and dust and having older stellar populations as compared to spiral galaxies.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

• noun A galaxy having a smooth, featureless light-profile. It is one of the three main classes of galaxies originally described by Edwin Hubble in his 1936 work “The Realm of the Nebulae”.