Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Oratoric: as, an oratory style.
  • noun The art of an orator; the art of speaking well, or of speaking according to the rules of rhetoric, in order to please or persuade; the art of public speaking. The three principal branches of this art are deliberative, epidictic, and judicial oratory. See epidictic.
  • noun Exercise of eloquence; eloquent language; eloquence: as, all his oratory was spent in vain.
  • noun Prayer; supplication; the act of beseeching or petitioning.
  • noun Pl. oratories (-riz). A place for prayer or worship.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A place of orisons, or prayer; especially, a chapel or small room set apart for private devotions.
  • noun (R. C. Ch.) a society of priests founded by St. Philip Neri, living in community, and not bound by a special vow. The members are called also oratorians.
  • noun The art of an orator; the art of public speaking in an eloquent or effective manner; the exercise of rhetorical skill in oral discourse; eloquence.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun uncountable The art of public speaking, especially in a formal, expressive, or forceful manner.
  • noun uncountable Eloquence; the quality of artistry and persuasiveness in speech or writing.
  • noun countable A private chapel.
  • noun countable A large Roman Catholic church.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun addressing an audience formally (usually a long and rhetorical address and often pompous)

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin ōrātōria, from the feminine of ōrātōrius ("oratorial").

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Anglo-Norman oratorie, Middle French oratoire, and their source, Late Latin ōrātōrium.

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Examples

  • [Page 347] back to us with their honors thick upon them; I remember one who returned with the prize in oratory from a contest between several western State universities, proudly testifying that he had obtained his confidence in our Henry Clay Club; another came back with a degree from Harvard University saying that he had made up his mind to go there the summer I read Royce's "Aspects of Modern Philosophy" with a group of young men who had challenged my scathing remark that Herbert Spencer was not the only man who had ventured a solution of the riddles of the universe.

    Twenty Years at Hull-House, With Autobiographical Notes 1910

  • My oratory is so persuasive that I win by a whole 40 votes.

    "Ming's Memoirs" from The Liberal Revue 2008

  • My oratory is so persuasive that I win by a whole 40 votes.

    Archive 2008-09-01 2008

  • Numerous contemporary works on rhetoric underscored the significance of mathematics in oratory training,15 while other ancient and popular texts presented the mathematical-linguistic relationship from a complementary angle.

    Architecture and Memory: The Renaissance Studioli of Federico da Montefeltro 2008

  • But if we have lost interest in oratory, we have not lost control of language; nor craftsmanship in the moulding and manipulation of meaningful words and phrases.

    The Irish Mind 1957

  • Churchill's mature oratory is swift, unerring in its aim, and moving in its grandeur.

    Nobel Prize in Literature 1953 - Presentation Speech 1953

  • One day I saw a little chamber she called her oratory; there was no furniture except a prie-dieu and a little altar with a cross and some vases of flowers.

    The French Immortals Series — Complete Various

  • "Come and see our chapel, Claire," said Abby; the word oratory did not yet come trippingly to her tongue.

    Apples, Ripe and Rosy, Sir Mary Catherine Crowley

  • Thus the old federation of "independent states," all equal in rights and dignity, each wearing the "jewel of sovereignty" so celebrated in Southern oratory, had gone the way of all flesh under the withering blasts of Civil War.

    History of the United States Mary Ritter Beard 1917

  • After-dinner oratory is not going to do it, nor the windy harangue of every peripatetic agitator.

    Three Imperial Topics: Imperial Ignorance; Imperial History; Imperial Unity 1904

Comments

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  • in castle architecture, a small private chamber for prayer.

    August 26, 2008