oratory

/ˌɔrəˈtɔri/

/ˈʌʊrətəʊri/

Other forms: oratories

An oratory is a long, formal speech. Often one that's a bit puffy and overblown, making you think the speaker really likes the sound of his own voice.

Oratory is from the Latin word oratorius for "speaking or pleading." In fact, oratories often leave audiences pleading for an end to the speech. They're the kind of thing evangelical preachers are good at. An oratory is also a little chapel, from the Latin oratorium for "a place of prayer," or a specific group of Roman Catholics, who name their oratories after where they're built, like the Brooklyn Oratory.

Definitions of oratory

1. noun

   addressing an audience formally (usually a long and rhetorical address and often pompous)
   “he loved the sound of his own oratory”

   types:

   keynote address, keynote speech

   a speech setting forth the keynote

   nominating address, nominating speech, nomination

   an address (usually at a political convention) proposing the name of a candidate to run for election

   oration

   an instance of oratory

   declamation

   vehement oratory

   epideictic oratory

   a type of oratory used to eulogize or condemn a person or group of people

   stump speech

   political oratory

   salutatory, salutatory address, salutatory oration

   an opening or welcoming statement (especially one delivered at graduation exercises)

   valediction, valedictory, valedictory address, valedictory oration

   a farewell oration (especially one delivered during graduation exercises by an outstanding member of a graduating class)

   broadside, philippic, tirade

   a speech of violent denunciation

   peroration

   a flowery and highly rhetorical oration

   harangue, rant, ranting

   a loud bombastic declamation expressed with strong emotion

   raving

   declaiming wildly

   type of:

   address, speech

   the act of delivering a formal spoken communication to an audience