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say it: AW-ruhl
oral is an adjective and noun meaning "using speech rather than writing". It is pronounced /ˈɔɹəl/ — AW-ruhl. It carries 5 recorded senses.
of or relating to or affecting or for use in the mouth
“oral hygiene”
“an oral thermometer”
“an oral vaccine”
of or involving the mouth or mouth region or the surface on which the mouth is located
“the oral cavity”
“the oral mucous membrane”
“the oral surface of a starfish”
“a buccal gland”
anatomy
a stage in psychosexual development when the child's interest is concentrated in the mouth; fixation at this stage is said to result in dependence, selfishness, and aggression
psychoanalysis
an examination conducted by spoken communication
Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.
Definitions, synonyms and semantic relations for oral come from Princeton University’s WordNet. The pronunciation comes from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. Commonness is measured against a corpus of everyday English. Full sources and licences.