Word.ws English Dictionary

circle-ellipse problem

circle-ellipse problem noun: the problematic situation where a base class contains methods which mutate an object in a manner which may invalidate a (stronger) invariant found in a derived class, violating the Liskov substitution principle. For example, if a circle is modelled as a subtype of an ellipse, and the ellipse has a method that stretches it on one axis, the circle must also implement that method despite it making no sense for a circle.

Noun

circle-ellipse problem

  1. (object-oriented programming) The problematic situation where a base class contains methods which mutate an object in a manner which may invalidate a (stronger) invariant found in a derived class, violating the Liskov substitution principle. For example, if a circle is modelled as a subtype of an ellipse, and the ellipse has a method that stretches it on one axis, the circle must also implement that method despite it making no sense for a circle.

Questions about circle-ellipse problem

What does circle-ellipse problem mean?
Circle-ellipse problem means the problematic situation where a base class contains methods which mutate an object in a manner which may invalidate a (stronger) invariant found in a derived class, violating the Liskov substitution principle. For example, if a circle is modelled as a subtype of an ellipse, and the ellipse has a method that stretches it on one axis, the circle must also implement that method despite it making no sense for a circle.
What part of speech is circle-ellipse problem?
Circle-ellipse problem is a noun.

Words near circle-ellipse problem in the dictionary

  1. circle the wagons
  2. circle time
  3. circle times
  4. circle up
  5. circle-A
  6. circle-ellipse problem
  7. circle-ish
  8. circle-jerk
  9. circle-jerks
  10. circle-strafe
  11. circle-strafed

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: circle-ellipse problem (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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