orature

Syllables: ora·ture/ˈɒɹətʃə/US/ˈɔɹət͡ʃɚ/

orature noun: the oral equivalent of literature: a collection of traditional folk songs, stories, etc., that is communicated orally rather than in writing. Also the variant of oratour.

Image: SiGarb, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

orature (countable and uncountable, plural oratures)

The oral equivalent of literature: a collection of traditional folk songs, stories, etc., that is communicated orally rather than in writing.
- It is because of this that Mr Pio Zirimu, a Ugandan linguist and literary critic, has coined the word ‘orature’.[1972, Wa Thiong’o [i.e., Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o], Homecoming: Essays on African and Caribbean Literature, Culture and Politics, London; Ibadan, Nigeria: Heinemann, →OCLC, page 70
- The decolonization of the African mind and imaginagion is a job that must be done. It is a job that requires that our perceptions, our imaginations, and our literary devices be fertilized by the past literatures and oratures of the Pan-African world, and by the literatures and oratures of other...1978, Okike: An African Journal of New Writing, Enugu, Nigeria: Okike Magazine, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 1
Synonyms:

oral literature

Also used as

orature is also the variant of oratour.

Examples of orature in a sentence

The text hopes to establish the interrelationship of these branches of Literature and through definition to show the specific application of these terms in Orature.1990, Leteipa Ole Sunkuli, Simon Okumba Miruka, “Introduction”, in A Dictionary of Oral Literature, Nairobi, Kenya; Kampala, Uganda: East...
There is much at work in this discussion of canon and orature.1997, Jace Weaver, “Native American Literatures and Communitism”, in That the People Might Live: Native American Literatures and Native...
This book takes readers into the hitherto unexplored undercurrents of one of the so-called minor genres of African orature—riddles.2015 April, Akíntúndé Akínyẹmí, “Introduction”, in Orature and Yorùbá Riddles, New York, N.Y.: Palgrave Macmillan, →ISBN, page 1:

Synonyms of orature

oral literature

Forms of orature

plural	oratures

Origin of orature

Blend of oral + literature, said to have been coined by the Ugandan linguist and literary theorist Pio Zirimu (died 1977): see the 1972 quotation.

From Scots oratur, orature, a variant of oratour, oritour, from Middle English oritore, a variant of ōrātōrī, ōrātōrīe (“room or other place for prayer or private study; chapel, church, temple; shrine”), from Old French oratur, orator, oratore, oratori, oratour (modern French oratoire (“oratory; oratorical”)), from Latin ōrātōrium, from ōrātōrius (“oratorical”), from ōrātor (“orator, speaker”) (from ōrō (“to deliver a speech, orate”), from ōs (“mouth”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁óh₃s (“mouth”)) + -ius (suffix forming adjectives from nouns).

Questions about orature

What does orature mean?: Orature means the oral equivalent of literature: a collection of traditional folk songs, stories, etc., that is communicated orally rather than in writing.
How do you use orature in a sentence?: The text hopes to establish the interrelationship of these branches of Literature and through definition to show the specific application of these terms in Orature.
What part of speech is orature?: Orature is a noun.
How do you pronounce orature?: Orature is pronounced /ˈɒɹətʃə/ (UK).
What is the plural of orature?: The plural of orature is oratures.

Words near orature in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: orature (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: 2026-09-02

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