Definitions

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

  • adjective Having the shape of a spheroid generated by rotating an ellipse about its longer axis.
  • adjective Having the distance between the poles longer than the equatorial diameter.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Lengthened along one direction. A prolate spheroid is produced by the revolution of a semi-ellipse about its larger diameter. See oblate.
  • To utter, especially in a drawling manner; lengthen in pronunciation or sound.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb obsolete To utter; to pronounce.
  • adjective Stretched out; extended; especially, elongated in the direction of a line joining the poles; ; -- opposed to oblate.
  • adjective See the Note under Cycloid.
  • adjective (Geom.), a figure generated by the revolution of an ellipse about its major axis. Contrasted with oblate spheroid. See Ellipsoid of revolution, under Ellipsoid.

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

  • adjective Elongated at the poles.
  • verb obsolete, transitive To utter; to pronounce.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective having the polar diameter greater than the equatorial diameter
  • adjective rounded like an egg

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Latin prōlātus, past participle of prōferre, to stretch out : prō-, forth; see pro– + lātus, brought; see telə- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin prolatum, past participle of proferre ("to extend, lengthen")

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