oral
[awr-uh l, ohr-]
- uttered by the mouth; spoken: oral testimony.
- 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.
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- an oral examination in a school, college, or university, given especially to a candidate for an advanced degree.
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Origin of oral
Usage note
1. See verbal.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for oral
Contemporary Examples
My doctor put me on oral contraceptives to induce a period, figuring it would help build bone.
“He was attempting to force me into oral sex,” Ruehli told Philadelphia Magazine.
Bill Cosby’s Long List of Accusers (So Far): 18 Alleged Sexual Assault Victims Between 1965-2004Marlow Stern
November 24, 2014
Also, when Nelson died and Hugh Morrow did his own oral history project and talked to about 75 Rockefeller associates.
After his mother arrived, the questioning ended, but his oral admissions were admitted into testimony.
These new developments are all the more positive when you take into account the dark history of the MPAA and oral sex.
Oral Sex Comes of Age in Hollywood: ‘Gone Girl’ the Latest Film to Showcase Female PleasureMarlow Stern
October 4, 2014
Historical Examples
He had made them, written and oral, and had only been laughed at for a half-crazy explorer.
Loot of the VoidEdwin K. Sloat
Oral fossa: in Mallophaga, a furrow lying in front of the mandibles.
Explanation of Terms Used in EntomologyJohn. B. Smith
Will men say, 'The later the ballad, the more it is altered in oral tradition'?
The Valet's Tragedy and Other StoriesAndrew Lang
That is the type of oral lesson which is most common at the present day.
What Is and What Might BeEdmond Holmes
Several of us had formed a class for oral instruction in French.
Lights and Shadows in Confederate PrisonsHomer B. Sprague
oral
- spoken or verbalan oral agreement
- relating to, affecting, or for use in the mouthan oral thermometer
- of or relating to the surface of an animal, such as a jellyfish, on which the mouth is situated
- denoting a drug to be taken by mouthan oral contraceptive Compare parenteral
- of, relating to, or using spoken words
- phonetics pronounced with the soft palate in a raised position completely closing the nasal cavity and allowing air to pass out only through the mouth
- psychoanal
- relating to a stage of psychosexual development during which the child's interest is concentrated on the mouth
- denoting personality traits, such as dependence, selfishness, and aggression, resulting from fixation at the oral stageCompare anal (def. 2), genital (def. 2), phallic (def. 2)
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- an examination in which the questions and answers are spoken rather than written
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Word Origin
C17: from Late Latin orālis, from Latin ōs face
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for oral
adj.
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.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
oral
(ôr′əl)- Of or relating to the mouth.
- Used in or taken through the mouth.
- Of or relating to the first stage of psychosexual development in psychoanalytic theory, in which the mouth is the focus of exploration and pleasure.
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The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.
oral
[ôr′əl]
- Relating to or involving the mouth.
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The American Heritage® Science Dictionary
Copyright © 2011. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.