or
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Definition of or
26 senses · 6 parts of speech · etymology included
conj
-
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.”
See all 26 definitions Show less
conj
-
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.”
-
Connects two equivalent names.
“The country Myanmar, or Burma”
- Inclusive or; either one proposition or the other is true or both.
- A lexical symbol to implement inclusive or in a computer language.
- A logic gate to implement inclusive or.
noun
- (alt-of, alternative)Alternative form of OR.
-
(countable, uncountable)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.”
-
(uncountable)The binary operator inclusive or, true if one at least one of two inputs is true. In infix notation.
“The proof (Tables 9 and 10) of idempotence for both OR and AND follows from examining the definition of each operation under the constraint that both inputs have the same value.”
-
(abbreviation, alt-of, countable, initialism)Initialism of operating room.
“Max Fischer: I like your nurse's uniform, guy. -- Dr. Peter Flynn: These are O.R. scrubs. -- Max Fischer: Oh, are they?”
- (Philippines, abbreviation, alt-of, countable, initialism)Initialism of official receipt.
- (abbreviation, alt-of, initialism, uncountable)Initialism of operations research.
- (abbreviation, alt-of, countable, initialism)Initialism of Olympic Record.
- (abbreviation, alt-of, countable, initialism)Initialism of odorant receptor.
- (abbreviation, alt-of, countable, initialism)Initialism of olfactory receptor.
- (abbreviation, alt-of, countable, initialism, uncountable)Initialism of original research.
- (abbreviation, alt-of, countable, initialism, uncountable)Initialism of other ranks.
adj
- (not-comparable)Of gold or yellow tincture on a coat of arms.
adv
- (obsolete)Early (on).
- (obsolete)Earlier, previously.
prep
-
(archaic, dialectal)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 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.”
name
- (abbreviation, alt-of)Abbreviation of Oregon: a state of the United States.
- (abbreviation, alt-of)Abbreviation of Orissa, former name of Odisha: a state of India.
- A surname.
Definitions from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA.
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”).
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