overwordExplorer
ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

oral.

Relating to the mouth.

4 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

adj/ˈɔː.ɹəl/Received-Pronunciation/ˈoɹəl/Canada, General-American/ˈɑ.ɹəl/East-Coast, dialectal/ˈoː.ɹəl/Australia, New-Zealand
  1. Relating to the mouth.

    not-comparable · relational
    oral hygiene
    oral sex
  2. Relating to the mouth. Done or taken by the mouth.

    not-comparable · relational
  3. Relating to the mouth. Pronounced by the voice resonating in the mouth, as the vowels in English.

    not-comparable · relational
  4. Relating to the mouth. Relating to or denoting a stage of infantile psychosexual development during which libidinal gratification is derived from intake (as of food), by sucking, and later by biting.

    not-comparable · relational
  5. Relating to the mouth. Of, relating to, or characterized by personality traits of passive dependency and aggressiveness.

    not-comparable · relational
  6. Spoken rather than written.

    not-comparable · relational
    an oral presentation
    an oral French exam
  7. Spoken rather than written. Relating to the transmission of information or literature by word of mouth.

    not-comparable · relational
  8. Spoken rather than written. Using speech or the lips especially in teaching the deaf.

    not-comparable · relational
  9. Spoken rather than written. Not having reached the stage of literacy.

    not-comparable · relational
Where this word comes from

PIE word *h₁óh₃s Early 17th century borrowing from Late Latin ōrālis, from ōs (“the mouth”) + -ālis (“-al”, adjectival suffix).

noun/ˈɔː.ɹəl/Received-Pronunciation/ˈoɹəl/Canada, General-American/ˈɑ.ɹəl/East-Coast, dialectal/ˈoː.ɹəl/Australia, New-Zealand
  1. A spoken test or examination, particularly in a language class.

    countable
    We've got our Spanish oral tomorrow.
  2. A physical examination of the mouth.

    countable · plural-normally
  3. Ellipsis of oral sex.

    abbreviation · alt-of · ellipsis · informal · uncountable
    I gave my boyfriend oral for the first time on his birthday.
  4. Ellipsis of oral steroid.

    abbreviation · alt-of · countable · ellipsis
Where this word comes from

PIE word *h₁óh₃s Early 17th century borrowing from Late Latin ōrālis, from ōs (“the mouth”) + -ālis (“-al”, adjectival suffix).

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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.