Based on the idea of coordinate transformation (Pendry, Schurig and Smith 2006 Science 312 1780), arbitrarily elliptical–cylindrical cloaks are proposed and designed. The elliptical cloak, which is composed of inhomogeneous anisotropic metamaterials in an elliptical-shell region, will deflect incoming electromagnetic (EM) waves and guide them to propagate around the inner elliptical region. Such EM waves will return to their original propagation directions without distorting the waves outside the elliptical cloak. General formulations of the inhomogeneous and anisotropic permittivity and permeability tensors are derived for arbitrarily elliptical axis ratio k, which can also be used for the circular cloak when k= 1. Hence the elliptical cloaks can make a large range of objects invisible, from round objects (when k approaches 1) to long and thin objects (when k is either very large or very small). We also show that the material parameters in elliptical cloaking are singular at only two points, instead of on the whole inner circle for circular cloaking, which are much easier to be realized in actual applications. Full-wave simulations are given to validate the arbitrarily elliptical cloaking.