or.
Connects at least two alternative words, phrases, clauses, sentences, etc., each of which could make a passage true.
Meaning & usage
Connects at least two alternative words, phrases, clauses, sentences, etc., each of which could make a passage true.
You may stay or go.
He might get cancer, or be hit by a bus, or God knows what.
An operator denoting the disjunction of two propositions or truth values. There are two forms: the inclusive or and the exclusive or.
Counts the elements before and after as two possibilities.
Otherwise (a consequence of the condition that the previous is false).
It's raining! Come inside or you'll catch a cold!
Connects two equivalent names.
The country Myanmar, or Burma
Used in between two numbers to denote a range between them.
A man of 18 or 20 years
Where this word comes from
From Middle English or; partially contracted from other, auther, from Old English āþor, āwþer, āhwæþer ("some, any, either"; > either); and partially from Middle English oththe, from Old English oþþe, from Proto-Germanic *efþau (“or”). Cognates Cognate with West Frisian of (“or”), Cimbrian odar, òdar (“or”), Dutch of, oft, ofte (“or”), German, Luxembourgish, and Vilamovian oder (“or”), Low German of, àder, àr, åder, år (“or”), Yiddish אָדער (oder, “or”), Icelandic eða, eður (“or”), Gothic 𐌰𐌹𐌸𐌸𐌰𐌿 (aiþþau, “or; otherwise”).
The gold or yellow tincture on a coat of arms.
Where this word comes from
From late Middle English or (“gold”), borrowed from Middle French or (“yellow”), from Old French or, from Latin aurum (“gold”). Doublet of aurum.
Of gold or yellow tincture on a coat of arms.
Where this word comes from
From late Middle English or (“gold”), borrowed from Middle French or (“yellow”), from Old French or, from Latin aurum (“gold”). Doublet of aurum.
Early (on).
Earlier, previously.
Where this word comes from
From Late Old English ār, from Old Norse ár. Compare ere.
Before; ere. Generally followed by “ever” or “e'er”.
Where this word comes from
From Late Old English ār, from Old Norse ár. Compare ere.
Alternative form of OR.
Where this word comes from
From Etymology 1 (sense 2 above).
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.