or
Connects at least two alternative words, phrases, clauses, sentences, etc., each of which could make a passage true.
Adjective
- Of gold or yellow tincture on a coat of arms.
Origin
From late Middle English or (“gold”), borrowed from Middle French or (“yellow”), from Old French or, from Latin aurum (“gold”). Doublet of aurum.
Synonyms
Adverb
- Early (on).
- Earlier, previously.
Origin
From Late Old English ār, from Old Norse ár. Compare ere.
Conjunction
- 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!
- No matter how early I came down, I would find him on the veranda, smoking cigarettes, or otherwise his man would be there with a message to say that his master would shortly join me if I would kindly wait. - 1897...
- Connects two equivalent names.
- The country Myanmar, or Burma
Origin
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”).
Related
Derived
Noun business, electrical engineering
- Alternative form of OR.
Origin
From Etymology 1 (sense 2 above).
Forms
Related
Noun government, heraldry
- The gold or yellow tincture on a coat of arms.
- The metals are gold and silver, these being termed "or" and "argent". - 1909, Arthur Charles Fox-Davies, A Complete Guide to Heraldry:
- In engraving, "Or" is expressed by dots. - 1889, Charles Norton Elvin, A Dictionary of Heraldry:
Forms
Synonyms
Related
Preposition
- Before; ere. Generally followed by "ever" or "e'er".
- Or euer the siluer corde be loosed, or the golden bowle be broken, or the pitcher be broken at the fountaine, or the wheele broken at the cisterne. Then shall the dust returne to the earth as it was: and the spirit...
- I looked to heaven, and tried to pray; But or ever a prayer had gusht, A wicked whisper came, and made My heart as dry as dust. - 1834, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner:
- And Time went forth into the worlds to obey the commands of the gods, yet he cast furtive glances at his masters, and the gods distrusted Time because he had known the worlds or ever the gods became. - 1906, Lord...