orator

• POS: Noun
• HYPHEN: or=a=tor

CIDE DICTIONARY

orator, n. [L., fr. orare to speak, utter. See Oration.].

•  A public speaker; one who delivers an oration; especially, one distinguished for his skill and power as a public speaker; one who is eloquent.  [1913 Webster]

  "I am no orator, as Brutus is."  [1913 Webster]

  "Some orator renowned
  In Athens or free Rome."  [1913 Webster]
•  In equity proceedings, one who prays for relief; a petitioner.  Burrill.  [1913 Webster]
•  An officer who is the voice of the university upon all public occasions, who writes, reads, and records all letters of a public nature, presents, with an appropriate address, those persons on whom honorary degrees are to be conferred, and performs other like duties; -- called also public orator.  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

orator, n.
1 a a person making a speech. b an eloquent public speaker.
2 (in full public orator) an official speaking for a university on ceremonial occasions.

Derivative

oratorial adj.

Etymology

ME f. AF oratour, OF orateur f. L orator -oris speaker, pleader (as ORATION)

ROGET THESAURUS

orator

Speech

N speech, faculty of speech, locution, talk, parlance, verbal intercourse, prolation, oral communication, word of mouth, parole, palaver, prattle, effusion, oration, recitation, delivery, say, speech, lecture, harangue, sermon, tirade, formal speech, peroration, speechifying, soliloquy, allocution, conversation, salutatory : screed: valedictory, oratory, elocution, eloquence, rhetoric, declamation, grandiloquence, multiloquence, burst of eloquence, facundity, flow of words, command of words, command of language, copia verborum, power of speech, gift of the gab, usus loquendi, speaker, spokesman, prolocutor, interlocutor, mouthpiece, Hermes, orator, oratrix, oratress, Demosthenes, Cicero, rhetorician, stump orator, platform orator, speechmaker, patterer, improvisatore, speaking, spoken, oral, lingual, phonetic, not written, unwritten, outspoken, eloquent, elocutionary, oratorical, rhetorical, declamatory, grandiloquent, talkative, Ciceronian, nuncupative, Tullian, orally, by word of mouth, viva voce, from the lips of, quoth he, said he, action is eloquence, pour the full tide of eloquence along, she speaks poignards and every word stabs, speech is but broken light upon the depth of the u, to try thy eloquence now 'tis time.