of, using, or transmitted by speech: oral methods of language teaching; oral traditions.
of, relating to, or involving the mouth: the oral cavity.
done, taken, or administered through the mouth: an oral dose of medicine.
Phonetics. articulated with none of the voice issuing through the nose, as the normal English vowels and the consonants b and v.
Psychoanalysis.
of or relating to the earliest phase of infantile psychosexual development, lasting from birth to one year of age or longer, during which pleasure is obtained from eating, sucking, and biting.
of or relating to the sublimation of feelings experienced during the oral stage of childhood: oral anxiety.
of or relating to gratification by stimulation of the lips or membranes of the mouth, as in sucking, eating, or talking
Zoology. pertaining to that surface of polyps and marine animals that contains the mouth and tentacles.
noun
an oral examination in a school, college, or university, given especially to a candidate for an advanced degree.
Origin of oral
1615–25; < Latinōr- (stem of ōs) mouth (cognate with Sanskritāsya) + -al1
Related formso·ral·i·ty, nouno·ral·ly, adverbnon·o·ral, adjectivenon·o·ral·ly, adverbpost·o·ral, adjectivesub·o·ral, adjectiveun·o·ral, adjectiveun·o·ral·ly, adverbCan be confusedoralaural
1620s, from Late Latin oralis, from Latin os (genitive oris) "mouth, opening, face, entrance," from PIE *os-/*ous- "mouth" (cf. Sanskrit asan "mouth," asyam "mouth, opening," Avestan ah-, Hittite aish, Middle Irish a "mouth," Old Norse oss "mouth of a river," Old English or "beginning, origin, front"). Psychological meaning "of the mouth as the focus of infantile sexual energy" (e.g. oral fixation) is from 1910. The sexual sense is first recorded 1948, in Kinsey. As a noun, "oral examination," attested from 1876. Related: Orally (c.1600); orality.
