orator

[awr-uh-ter, or-]

noun

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.

orator

/ 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

Other Word Forms

• oratorlike adjective
• oratorship noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of orator¹

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

Example Sentences

A firsthand account by an escaped slave who became a famous abolitionist and orator, this memoir reframed slavery as coerced labor.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

Although she was never a great orator, her voice was heard loud and clear, defining an era in American politics.

Read more on Salon

By then, Nehru had gained a reputation as a formidable orator, delivering extempore speeches that ranged effortlessly across politics, science, art, and ethics.

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The plaque that previously labelled the statue read "author, poet, scholar, soldier, jurist, orator, philanthropist and philosopher".

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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.”

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

Related Words

• lecturer 
• preacher 
• public speaker www.thesaurus.com