oral history

noun

|Updated on: 6 Aug 2018

Examples: oral history in a Sentence

Definition of oral history

1 : a recording containing information about the past obtained from in-depth interviews concerning personal experiences, recollections, and reflections; also : the study of such information

2 : a written work based on oral history

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oral historian

noun

See oral history defined for English-language learners

Examples of oral history in a Sentence

I'm reading an oral history of the Great Depression.

Recent Examples of oral history from the Web

According to an oral history done by The Hollywood Reporter in 2017, Spelling asked creator Darren Star in 1993 to meet with Locklear in an effort to invigorate the struggling show.

— tyler mccarthy, Fox News, "How Heather Locklear went from TV's hottest actress to struggling star," 29 June 2018
Here's an oral history on how punks took back their scene.

— steve knopper, GQ, "Nazi Punks F**k Off: How Black Flag, Bad Brains, and More Took Back Their Scene from White Supremacists," 16 Jan. 2018
Ten years after the release of Step Brothers, Alan Siegel of The Ringer delivers an oral history on its creation.

— si.com staff, SI.com, "Weekend Read: Meet the 'Adopted Son' of NBA Summer League, Astroball's Release and More," 13 July 2018
So the brilliant, grumpy and irascible priest of old times is gone, and — with him — goes a priceless oral history of the blues and thousands of songs.

— george varga, sandiegouniontribune.com, "Lou Curtiss, a key mentor to Tom Waits, Jack Tempchin and other musicians, has died at 79," 10 July 2018
The oral histories also include a discussion of Vietnam — and here RFK emerges as more hawkish than his older brother.

— david kaiser, Time, "Robert F. Kennedy Is Remembered as a Liberal Icon. Here's the Truth About His Politics," 5 June 2018
Bloomberg Markets Magazine Discussing his oral history of the 30th anniversary of the stock market collapse of Oct. 19, 1987.

— Bloomberg.com, "Bloomberg Markets: Dewey Remembers Black Monday," 19 Oct. 2017
For Smithsonian magazine, author Andrew M. Davenport discusses the work of Getting Word, an oral history project that, since 1993, has collected histories of African American families who lived at Thomas Jefferson’s Virginia plantation, Monticello.

— danielle jackson, Longreads, "Oral History Project Grounds Story of Monticello in the Lives of the Enslaved," 27 June 2018
Though balls continued, their relevance in the mainstream never truly caught on, relegated to oral histories and academic texts.

— jason parham, WIRED, "With Pose, Prestige TV Becomes Resistance TV," 1 June 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'oral history.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

First Known Use of oral history

1950

in the meaning defined at sense 1

See Words from the same year

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ORAL HISTORY Defined for English Language Learners

oral history

noun

Definition of oral history for English Language Learners

: recorded information about the past that you get from talking to people about their experiences, families, etc.
: a book, article, etc., that is based on oral history