oral

[awr-uh l, ohr-] /ˈɔr əl, ˈoʊr-/

adjective

uttered by the mouth; spoken:

oral testimony.

of, using, or transmitted by speech:

oral methods of language teaching; oral traditions.

of, pertaining to, or involving the mouth:

the oral cavity.

done, taken, or administered through the mouth:

an oral dose of medicine.

Phonetics. articulated with none of the voice issuing through the nose, as the normal English vowels and the consonants b and v.

Psychoanalysis.

of or pertaining to the earliest phase of infantile psychosexual development, lasting from birth to one year of age or longer, during which pleasure is obtained from eating, sucking, and biting.
of or pertaining to the sublimation of feelings experienced during the oral stage of childhood:
oral anxiety.
of or pertaining to gratification by stimulation of the lips or membranes of the mouth, as in sucking, eating, or talking.

Zoology. pertaining to that surface of polyps and marine animals that contains the mouth and tentacles.

noun

an oral examination in a school, college, or university, given especially to a candidate for an advanced degree.

Origin

1615-25; < Latin ōr- (stem of ōs) mouth (cognate with Sanskrit āsya) + -al¹

Related forms

orality, noun

orally, adverb

nonoral, adjective

nonorally, adverb

postoral, adjective

suboral, adjective

unoral, adjective

unorally, adverb

Can be confused

oral, aural.

Usage note

1. See verbal.

British Dictionary definitions for oral

oral

/ˈɔːrəl; ˈɒrəl/

adjective

spoken or verbal: an oral agreement

relating to, affecting, or for use in the mouth: an oral thermometer

of or relating to the surface of an animal, such as a jellyfish, on which the mouth is situated

denoting a drug to be taken by mouth: an oral contraceptive Compare parenteral

of, relating to, or using spoken words

(phonetics) pronounced with the soft palate in a raised position completely closing the nasal cavity and allowing air to pass out only through the mouth

(psychoanal)

relating to a stage of psychosexual development during which the child's interest is concentrated on the mouth
denoting personality traits, such as dependence, selfishness, and aggression, resulting from fixation at the oral stage Compare anal (sense 2), genital (sense 2), phallic (sense 2)

noun

an examination in which the questions and answers are spoken rather than written

Derived Forms

orally, adverb

Word Origin

C17: from Late Latin orālis, from Latin ōs face

Word Origin and History for oral

adj.

1620s, from Late Latin oralis, from Latin os (genitive oris) "mouth, opening, face, entrance," from PIE *os-/*ous- "mouth" (cf. Sanskrit asan "mouth," asyam "mouth, opening," Avestan ah-, Hittite aish, Middle Irish a "mouth," Old Norse oss "mouth of a river," Old English or "beginning, origin, front"). Psychological meaning "of the mouth as the focus of infantile sexual energy" (e.g. oral fixation) is from 1910. The sexual sense is first recorded 1948, in Kinsey. As a noun, "oral examination," attested from 1876. Related: Orally (c.1600); orality.

oral in Medicine

oral o·ral (ôr'əl)
adj.

Of or relating to the mouth.
Used in or taken through the mouth.
Of or relating to the first stage of psychosexual development in psychoanalytic theory, in which the mouth is the focus of exploration and pleasure.

o'ral·ly adv.

oral in Science

oral

(ôr'əl)
Relating to or involving the mouth.

Encyclopedia Article for oral

Oral

city, western Kazakhstan, along the Ural (Zhayyq) River. Founded in 1613 or 1622 by Cossacks fleeing a tsarist punitive campaign, it was known as Yaitsky Gorodok until 1775, when its name was changed following the Pugachov Rebellion. The town was a centre of both the Stenka Razin (1667) and Yemelyan Pugachov (1773) uprisings and was the headquarters of the Ural Cossacks. It had a lively trade with European Russia in fish from the Ural River and livestock products from the Kazakh steppes. Its commercial importance began to decline in the early 20th century when the new railway to Turkistan bypassed it. Oral's industries today include leather and footwear, meatpacking, flour milling, some engineering, and a licorice works. The city has teacher-training and agricultural institutes, the oldest theatre in Kazakhstan, and a museum with historic Cossack mementos

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