Definition of "oratory" []

• The art of public speaking. (noun)
• Eloquence or skill in making speeches to the public. (noun)
• Public speaking marked by the use of overblown rhetoric. (noun)
• A place for prayer, such as a small private chapel. (noun)
• A Roman Catholic religious society founded in 1575 by Saint Philip Neri and consisting of secular priests. (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.

• "[Page 347] back to us with their honors thick upon them; I remember one who returned with the prize in oratory from a contest between several western State universities, proudly testifying that he had obtained his confidence in our Henry Clay Club; another came back with a degree from Harvard University saying that he had made up his mind to go there the summer I read Royce's "Aspects of Modern Philosophy" with a group of young men who had challenged my scathing remark that Herbert Spencer was not the only man who had ventured a solution of the riddles of the universe."
• "Numerous contemporary works on rhetoric underscored the significance of mathematics in oratory training,15 while other ancient and popular texts presented the mathematical-linguistic relationship from a complementary angle."
• "My oratory is so persuasive that I win by a whole 40 votes."