Meaning & use
oratory
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Meanings
noununcountableformal
The art or skill of speaking to an audience in a powerful, persuasive and polished way.
Grammar: Uncountable: his oratory moved the crowd. It names the skill or style, not one speech.
Patterns
- the oratory of someone
- skills in oratory
The senator's oratory silenced the noisy hall.
Ancient Greek schools taught young men the art of oratory.
Her powerful oratory inspired thousands to join the march.
noununcountabledisapproving
Speech that is flowery, grand or exaggerated, especially in politics.
Grammar: Often critical when it means grand words with little substance: empty oratory.
Patterns
- political oratory
- empty oratory
Voters were tired of political oratory with no real plans behind it.
The meeting dissolved into heated oratory and little action.
nouncountablereligion
A small chapel or room for private prayer.
Grammar: A countable noun: a small oratory in the monastery. This is a separate meaning from public speaking.
Patterns
- a private oratory
- an oratory in something
The monks gathered in the small oratory each morning to pray.
The old castle still has a tiny oratory beside the great hall.
Word forms
| plural | oratories |
|---|
Common combinations
- skill in oratory
- His skill in oratory won him a seat in parliament.
- political oratory
- Political oratory often relies on repetition and strong images.
- stirring oratory
- The president's stirring oratory moved the nation.
- golden oratory
- She was praised for the golden oratory of her closing speech.
- public oratory
- Public oratory was a respected art in the nineteenth century.
Synonyms and how they differ
- rhetoric
- Rhetoric means the art of persuasive language and can also sound empty, while oratory stresses the delivery of a spoken speech.
- eloquence
- Eloquence refers to graceful, expressive speech or writing, and it is not limited to public speaking as oratory is.
- public speaking
- Public speaking is a neutral, everyday phrase, while oratory sounds more grand and skilled.
Opposites
Word family
- orator noun
- a skilled public speaker
- oratorical adjective
- relating to oratory or orators
- oratorio noun
- a large musical work for singers and orchestra, usually on a religious theme
- orate verb
- to speak in a formal, often long-winded way
Commonly confused: oratory or oratorio?
oratory vs oratorio
An oratorio is a musical work for choir and orchestra, and it is not a speech even though the word looks like oratory.
Practice
Which sentence uses oratory in the sense of a prayer room?
Choose one answer.
An oratory in the sense of a small chapel is a place for private prayer, as the abbey sentence shows. In the other sentences oratory means skill or style in public speaking.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “oratory”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.