orator

American  

[awr-uh-ter, or-] / ˈɔr ə tər, ˈɒr- /

noun

• orators
  plural

1. a person who delivers an oration; a public speaker, especially one of great eloquence.

   Demosthenes was one of the great orators of ancient Greece.

2. Law. a plaintiff in a case in a court of equity.

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orator British  

/ ˈɒrətə /

noun

1. a public speaker, esp one versed in rhetoric

2. a person given to lengthy or pompous speeches

3. obsolete the claimant in a cause of action in chancery

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• oratorship
  noun
• oratorlike
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• orators
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of orator

1325–75; < Latin ōrātor speaker, suppliant, equivalent to ōrā ( re ) ( see oration) + -tor -tor; replacing Middle English oratour < Anglo-French < Latin, as above

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Explanation

A person giving a speech is called an orator, like the gifted orator who raised excellent points, making everyone in the audience want to join his revolution. The noun orator traces back to the Latin word orare, meaning to “speak before a court or assembly, plead.” Orator is really just a formal way of saying “speaker.” Technically, you can use it to describe anyone who is giving a speech, whether it’s a speaker at the United Nations or a classmate giving a short presentation. However, orator often implies that the speaker is particularly gifted.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

orator orators

From Ossoff, he learned how to braid in being an intellectual and polished orator, how debate-club tactics can work as long as you eschew the tie and show an inch of clavicle.

From Slate ● Oct. 27, 2026

Davies partly credits the Query Club with helping create Bevan the orator.

From BBC ● Oct. 25, 2026

This film is not merely glittering debris, as some have posited, nor is it style over substance; it’s a campfire story told by Thatcher’s unearthly orator.

From Salon ● Aug. 17, 2026

Other than the Bible, it was the bestselling book in 19th-century America, and it brought the abolitionist movement to mainstream awareness as no politician or orator had done before it.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 19, 2026

To shape himself as an orator he learned by heart the speeches of Disraeli, Gladstone, Cromwell, Burke, and Pitt.

From "Words Like Loaded Pistols" by Sam Leith

While Mr. Perl-Rosenthal skillfully charts the public philosophy of the orators, the story feels somewhat incomplete without lingering on the man who effectively codified their dissent into a national creed.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 22, 2026

I often return to the wisdom of Frederick Douglass, a formerly enslaved person and one of this country’s greatest thinkers and orators.

From Salon ● Jun. 27, 2025

Luckily, he’s a once-in-a-generation political talent himself and one of the greatest orators in modern life.

From Slate ● Aug. 21, 2024

“It is here where he would begin his career as one of the most renowned orators of the 19th century.”

From Seattle Times ● Feb. 14, 2024

The greatest of the Roman orators, Cicero was known for his long and carefully plotted sentences that did not reveal their full meaning until the very last word.

From "The Interrupted Tale" by Maryrose Wood

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Related Words

• lecturer
• preacher
• public speaker

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