Definition of "oracle" []

• A shrine consecrated to the worship and consultation of a prophetic deity, as that of Apollo at Delphi. (noun)
• A person, such as a priestess, through whom a deity is held to respond when consulted. (noun)
• The response given through such a medium, often in the form of an enigmatic statement or allegory. (noun)
• A person considered to be a source of wise counsel or prophetic opinions. (noun)
• An authoritative or wise statement or prediction. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "It would not be quite right, I think, to say that the imagery of decay and disease attached to the figure of the oracle represents this corruption, that the sickness of the oracle is crudely symbolic of the wrongness of the society as a whole."
• "Just for one example, the class of problems that can be solved by a Turing Machine that can, in turn, use another Turing Machine as an oracle is more powerful than a single Turing Machine."
• "Otters and the Coons and the Muskrats saw them coming, they gave a great shout, for Grandfather Frog is sometimes called the oracle of the"