Oration

• POS: Noun
• HYPHEN: o=ra=tion

CIDE DICTIONARY

Oration, n. [L. oratio, fr. orare to speak, utter, pray. See Oral, Orison.].

 An elaborate discourse, delivered in public, treating an important subject in a formal and dignified manner; especially, a discourse having reference to some special occasion, as a funeral, an anniversary, a celebration, or the like; -- distinguished from an argument in court, a popular harangue, a sermon, a lecture, etc.; as, Webster's oration at Bunker Hill.  [1913 Webster]
"The lord archbishop . . . made a long oration."  [1913 Webster]

Syn. -- Address; speech. See Harangue.

Oration, v. i. 

 To deliver an oration.  Donne.  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

Oration, n.
1 a formal speech, discourse, etc., esp. when ceremonial.
2 Gram. a way of speaking; language.

Etymology

ME f. L oratio discourse, prayer f. orare speak, pray

THESAURUS

Oration

address, after-dinner speech, allocution, chalk talk, debate, declamation, declaration, diatribe, discourse, eulogy, exhortation, filibuster, forensic, forensic address, formal speech, funeral oration, harangue, homily, hortatory address, inaugural, inaugural address, invective, jeremiad, lecture, monologue, panegyric, pep talk, peroration, philippic, pitch, prepared speech, prepared text, public speech, reading, recital, recitation, sales talk, salutatory, salutatory address, say, screed, set speech, speech, speechification, speeching, spiel, talk, talkathon, tirade, valediction, valedictory, valedictory address

ROGET THESAURUS

Oration

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.