1
: one who delivers an oration
The orator delivered the funeral oration at the cathedral.
2
: one distinguished for skill and power as a public speaker
… is a masterly orator, able to reduce a throng of thousands to a hushed silence …—
Raymond Bonner
Raymond BonnerExamples of orator in a Sentence
though a brilliant wordsmith, Thomas Jefferson was by his own admission an unskilled orator
Recent Examples on the Web
Mario Cuomo, the soaring orator and three-term governor, embodied the liberal conscience of the 1980s.
—Nik Popli, Time, 5 Nov. 2025
When the bill comes due after seven years of high living, infidelity, gambling, drinking, and usury, Jabez’s only hope seems to be Daniel Webster (Edward Arnold), the revered and charismatic politician and orator.
—Keith Phipps, Vulture, 31 Oct. 2025
Once freed from slavery, Washington toiled in coal mines, worked as a janitor in exchange for formal education and became a great American orator and leader of the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama.
—Jennifer Smith Richards, ProPublica, 22 Oct. 2025
From Trying to Be, which will be published next month by Fiction Collective Two.
t the end of an earlier century, an orator named F. Matthias Alexander codified a way of understanding, or at least thinking about, the body.
—John Haskell, Harpers Magazine, 20 Aug. 2025
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Nik Popli, Time, 5 Nov. 2025
When the bill comes due after seven years of high living, infidelity, gambling, drinking, and usury, Jabez’s only hope seems to be Daniel Webster (Edward Arnold), the revered and charismatic politician and orator.
—Keith Phipps, Vulture, 31 Oct. 2025
Once freed from slavery, Washington toiled in coal mines, worked as a janitor in exchange for formal education and became a great American orator and leader of the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama.
—Jennifer Smith Richards, ProPublica, 22 Oct. 2025
From Trying to Be, which will be published next month by Fiction Collective Two.
t the end of an earlier century, an orator named F. Matthias Alexander codified a way of understanding, or at least thinking about, the body.
—John Haskell, Harpers Magazine, 20 Aug. 2025
See All Example Sentences for orator
Cite this Entry
“Orator.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/orator. Accessed 11 Nov. 2025.
Copy CitationKids Definition
orator
noun
or·a·tor
ˈȯr-ət-ər 
ˈär-
: a public speaker noted for skill and power in speaking
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