or

conjunctionnounnounadjectiveadverbprepositiontop 100 in film dialogue

United Kingdom//ɔː(ɹ)//
United States//oɹ//
//ə(ɹ)//
//ɔː(ɹ)//
//ɚ//
//oɹ//

Connects at least two alternative words, phrases, clauses, sentences, etc., each of which could make a passage true.

conjunction

1
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.
2
An operator denoting the disjunction of two propositions or truth values. There are two forms, the inclusive or and the exclusive or.
3
Counts the elements before and after as two possibilities.
4
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.
5
Connects two equivalent names.
The country Myanmar, or Burma

Etymology

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”). Cognates Cognate with West Frisian of (“or”), Cimbrian odar, òdar (“or”), Dutch of, oft, ofte (“or”), German, Luxembourgish, and Vilamovian oder (“or”), Low German of, àder, àr, åder, år (“or”), Yiddish אָדער (oder, “or”), Icelandic eða, eður (“or”), Gothic 𐌰𐌹𐌸𐌸𐌰𐌿 (aiþþau, “or; otherwise”).

noun

1
Variant of ORAlternative form of OR.

Etymology

From Etymology 1 (sense 2 above).

noun

1
The gold or yellow tincture on a coat of arms.
The metals are gold and silver, these being termed "or" and "argent".
In engraving, "Or" is expressed by dots.

Etymology

From late Middle English or (“gold”), borrowed from Middle French or (“yellow”), from Old French or, from Latin aurum (“gold”). Doublet of aurum.

adjective

1
Of gold or yellow tincture on a coat of arms.

adverb

1
obsoleteEarly (on).
2
obsoleteEarlier, previously.

Etymology

From Late Old English ār, from Old Norse ár. Compare ere.

preposition

1
archaicBefore; 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 shall returne vnto God who gaue it.
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.
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.

Forms

plural: ors

optimistic · Expecting the best in all possible ways.Optimus · A pet name for a device, such as a car, computer, or robot.option · One of a set of choices that can be made.

or · Connects at least two alternative words, phrases, clauses, sentences, etc., each of which could make a passage true.

Or · A surname.OR · Inclusive or; either one proposition or the other is true or…oracle · A shrine dedicated to some prophetic deity.

The neighbouring pages — Alphabetical order follows the rules of the language, not byte values: an accent decides only between two otherwise identical words, and Spanish files Ñ as a letter of its own.