orator

UK/ˈɒ.ɹə.tə(ɹ)/

nounC1Rare in speech; mostly a word you read · #13,305 of 15,258leans written

Other forms: orators

An orator is a skilled and powerful public speaker. A great orator.

The skill is delivery rather than argument, which is why the best speeches read flatter than they sounded. An orator with a microphone speaks quite differently from one without.

Definitions of orator

1nounoratorA skilled and powerful public speaker.C1
“He was the only orator in the room and the worst prepared.”

orator is a speaker.

Where it comes from

Latin orator comes from orare, to speak or plead.

Latin
ōrātor
Anglo-Norman
oratour
Middle English
oratour
English, today
orator

From Middle English oratour, from Anglo-Norman oratour, from Latin ōrātor.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practise this word

orator in the wild

Although he was an accomplished orator and successful lawyer, Cicero believed his political career was his most important achievement.
Cicero
William Jennings Bryan was an American lawyer, orator, and politician.
William Jennings Bryan
Cicero said of him that inter omnis unus excellat ("among them all, he excels alone"), and also praised him as "the perfect orator" who lacked nothing.
Demosthenes
Antiphon of Rhamnus was the earliest of the ten Attic orators, and an important figure in fifth-century Athenian political and intellectual life.
Antiphon (orator)
Marcus Antonius was a Roman politician of the Antonius family and one of the most distinguished Roman orators of his time.
Marcus Antonius (orator)

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

Related words

oratory

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