oral

[awr-uh l, ohr-]

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adjective

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.

noun

an oral examination in a school, college, or university, given especially to a candidate for an advanced degree.

Origin of oral

1615–25; < Latin ōr- (stem of ōs) mouth (cognate with Sanskrit āsya) + -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, adverb

Can be confusedoral aural

Usage note

1. See verbal.

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Related Words for orally

personally, spoken

Examples from the Web for orally

Historical Examples of orally

The art of orally persuading fools that white is the color that it appears to be.
The Devil's Dictionary
Ambrose Bierce
It is a waste of the student's time to present orally that which can be found in print.
College Teaching
Paul Klapper
They may read the questions silently, answering them orally.
Where We Live
Emilie Van Beil Jacobs
To the sound ou he prefixes an e (hard to exemplify otherwise than orally).
The Biglow Papers
James Russell Lowell
But who guarantees that we shall have what was orally promised to us?
Current History, A Monthly Magazine
New York Times

British Dictionary definitions for orally

oral

adjective

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)

noun

an examination in which the questions and answers are spoken rather than written

Derived Formsorally, adverb

Word Origin for oral

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 orally

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.