Curtate

Pronunciation: k?r"t?t
a.

1. Shortened or reduced; -- said of the distance of a planet from the sun or earth, as measured in the plane of the ecliptic, or the distance from the sun or earth to that point where a perpendicular, let fall from the planet upon the plane of the ecliptic, meets the ecliptic.
   
Curtate cycloid . (Math.)
See Cycloid.