Word.ws English Dictionary

oratory

UK/ˈɒɹət(ə)ɹi/US/ˈɔ.ɹəˌtɔ.ɹi/

oratory noun: a private chapel or prayer room.

oratory: a private chapel or prayer room
Image: pam fray, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun (1)

oratory (plural oratories)

  1. A private chapel or prayer room.
    • I will retire to my oratory, and pray to the blessed Virgin to inspire you with her holy counsels […].1764, Horace Walpole, “chapter II”, in The Castle of Otranto
  2. A Roman Catholic chapel; a building for public or private worship that is not a parish church.
    • By public oratories are meant those attached to monasteries, convents, seminaries, etc., having a public entrance by which the faithful have access to them.1876, Michael Comerford, The Book of Holy Indulgences […] , page 29
  3. (specifically) A Catholic church belonging to the Oratory of Saint Philip Neri.
    • They had been given the old Oscott College premises as a temporary home, but were content there until Oratories could be established in the cities. St Philip Neri had specifically intended that the Oratory should be a city-based form of communal and missionary life.2006, Judith F. Champ, William Bernard Ullathorne, 1806–1889: A Different Kind of Monk, →ISBN, page 168

Noun (2)

oratory (uncountable)

  1. The art of public speaking, especially in a formal, expressive, or forceful manner.
    Synonyms:
    public speaking
  2. Eloquence; the quality of artistry and persuasiveness in speech or writing.
    • Rising from humble farmhand to community organizer to a leader of the national Fatah party, Mr. Barghouti became known for his soaring oratory and common touch.2024 April 1, Taylor Luck, Fatima AbdulKarim, “Palestinian Mandela? Marwan Barghouti, imprisoned preacher of unity.”, in The Christian Science Monitor

Proper noun capitalized: Oratory

the Oratory

  1. The Oratory of Saint Philip Neri, a society of priests and lay brothers founded in 1575.

Noun (3) capitalized: Oratory

Oratory (plural Oratories)

  1. Alternative letter-case form of oratory: a church belonging to the Oratory.

oratory meaning in Arabic and Persian

oratory in Arabic

private chapel
مُصَلًّى muṣallan
art of public speaking
خِطَابَة ḵiṭāba

oratory in Persian

private chapel
مصلی mosallâ, نمازخانه namâzxâne, نمازگاه namâzgâh

Synonyms of oratory

Forms of oratory

pluraloratories
alternative formOratory
pluralOratories

Plural of oratory: oratories

Origin of oratory

From Middle English oratorie, from Anglo-Norman oratorie, Middle French oratoire, and their source, Late Latin ōrātōrium. Doublet of oratorio. Displaced native Old English bēdhūs.

Borrowed from Latin ōrātōria, from the feminine of ōrātōrius (“oratorial”).

Words formed from oratory

Questions about oratory

What does oratory mean?
Oratory means a private chapel or prayer room.
What is oratory in Arabic?
Oratory in Arabic is مُصَلًّى (muṣallan), خِطَابَة (ḵiṭāba). See Oratory meaning in Arabic.
What part of speech is oratory?
Oratory can be a noun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce oratory?
Oratory is pronounced /ˈɒɹət(ə)ɹi/ (UK).
What is the plural of oratory?
The plural of oratory is oratories.

Words near oratory in the dictionary

  1. oratorizing
  2. oratorlike
  3. orators
  4. oratorship
  5. oratorships
  6. oratory
  7. oratour
  8. oratours
  9. oratress
  10. oratresses
  11. oratrices

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: oratory (page history and authors); Oratory (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-oratory.ogg.

Cite this entry: “oratory.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/oratory. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.