oral

pronunciation

How to pronounce oral in British English: UK [ˈɔːrəl] word uk audio image

How to pronounce oral in American English: US [ˈɔːrəl] word us audio image

Noun:

an examination conducted by word of mouth
Adjective:

using speech rather than writing
of or relating to or affecting or for use in the mouth
of or involving the mouth or mouth region or the surface on which the mouth is located
a stage in psychosexual development when the child's interest is concentrated in the mouth; fixation at this stage is said to result in dependence, selfishness, and aggression

Word Origin

oral: oral: [17] Oral comes from Latin ōs ‘mouth’. This went back to a prehistoric Indo-European *ōs- or *ōus-, which also produced Sanskrit ās-, ‘mouth’ and Old Norse óss ‘mouth of a river’. Its other contributions to English include orifice [16] (etymologically ‘forming a mouth’), oscillate, osculate ‘kiss’ [17], and usher.=> orifice, oscillate, osculate, usher

oral (adj.): 1620s, from Late Latin oralis, from Latin os (genitive oris) "mouth, opening, face, entrance," from PIE *os- "mouth" (cognates: 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" (as in 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. Os was the usual word for "mouth" in Latin, but as the vowel distinction was lost it became similar in sound to os "bone" (see osseous). Thus bucca, originally "cheek" but used colloquial as "mouth," because the usual word for "mouth" (see bouche).

adj.

adj.