Skip to content
ARCHIEENGLISH
LearnPlayWordsRanking
  • Learn
  • Play
  • Words
  • Ranking
  • Mine
← Vocabulary

oratory

UK/ˈɒɹət(ə)ɹi/US/ˈɔ.ɹəˌtɔ.ɹi/
nounC1Rare in speech; mostly a word you read · #13,098 of 15,258mostly written

Other forms: oratories

Oratory is the art of speaking well in public. Great oratory, a piece of oratory, the power of oratory.

It was a taught subject for two thousand years and is barely taught now, which is why the great speeches all come from before television. The same word also names a small private chapel, from the Latin for praying.

Definitions of oratory

  1. 1nounoratoryThe art of speaking well in public.C1

    “His stirring oratory kept the crowd cheering for over an hour.”

oratory is an art.

Where it comes from

Latin oratorius comes from orare, to speak or pray.

  1. Latin

    ōrātōrium

  2. Middle French

    oratoire

  3. Anglo-Norman

    oratorie

  4. Middle English

    oratorie

  5. English, today

    oratory

From Middle English oratorie, from Anglo-Norman oratorie, Middle French oratoire, and their source, Latin ōrātōrium. a doublet of oratorio. Displaced native Old English bēdhūs. thumb|London Oratory (2 and 3).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practise this word

oratory in the wild

  • Public speaking, or oratory, is the delivery of a speech to a live audience.

    Public speaking

  • Normally an oratory must have a minimum of four members, two being ordained, in order to be founded.

    Oratory of Saint Philip Neri

  • The work was probably composed in 46 BC, with the purpose of defending Cicero's own oratory.

    Brutus (Cicero)

  • The word oratory comes from the Latin verb orare, to pray.

    Oratory (worship)

  • Thomas Aquinas is a late-Renaissance-style, Roman Catholic oratory or prayer hall located on Via della Pergola in Florence, region of Tuscany, Italy.

    Oratory of St Thomas Aquinas, Florence

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.