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

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

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

Handsome and dynamic, an orator with a flair for memorable rhyme, the Rev. Jesse Jackson was the first Black candidate for president to attract a major following.

From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 28, 2026

King’s “I Have a Dream” speech exemplified his prowess as an orator.

From Barron's ● Jan. 19, 2026

We know Augustine in a way that we do no other ancient individual except perhaps Cicero, the Roman orator of the late Republic whose writings were required texts for centuries of schoolboys.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 19, 2025

Therein lies a dilemma, because Franco was not an especially compelling orator or a magnetic, mercurial personality after the fashion of Hitler, Mussolini and, you know, others we could name.

From Salon ● Nov. 16, 2025

Hazel walked over to where the performers were, past the saxophonist and the orator.

From "Breadcrumbs" by Anne Ursu

This period saw a brilliant revitalization by Roman writers and orators of older Greek rhetorical techniques; it was “tinged with a romanticism common to movements oriented toward the distant past.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 27, 2025

By the 4th century BCE, Athenian orators even quoted lines from the tragedians in court, knowing that jurors “liked quotations from tragedy,” in one scholar’s words.

From Salon ● Apr. 13, 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

One book described how orators in ancient Rome would use “loci,” or reference points, to remember long passages.

From Washington Post ● Apr. 8, 2023

Pamphlets of verse by negro poets, autobiographies of colored orators.

From "The Underground Railroad: A Novel" by Colson Whitehead

Related Words

• lecturer
• preacher
• public speaker