King James Bible Dictionary

ORA'TION, noun [Latin oratio, from oro, to pray, to utter.]

1. A speech or discourse composed according to the rules of oratory, and spoken in public. Orations may be reduced to three kinds; demonstrative, deliberative, and judicial.

2. In modern usage, an oration differs from a sermon, from an argument at the bar, and from a speech before a deliberative assembly. The word is now applied chiefly to discourses pronounced on special occasions, as a funeral oration an oration on some anniversary, etc. and to academic declamations.

3. A harangue; a public speech or address.