or: Meaning and Definition of

or

Pronunciation: (ôr unstressed &schwar), [key]
  1. (used to connect words, phrases, or clauses representing alternatives): books or magazines; to be or not to be.
  2. (used to connect alternative terms for the same thing): the Hawaiian, or Sandwich, Islands.
  3. (used in correlation): either … or; or … or; whether … or.
  4. (used to correct or rephrase what was previously said): His autobiography, or rather memoirs, will soon be ready for publication.
  5. otherwise; or else: Be here on time, or we'll leave without you.
  6. the connective used in disjunction.

or

Pronunciation: (ôr), [key]
  1. before; ere.

or

Pronunciation: (ôr), [key]
—n.
  1. the tincture, or metal, gold: represented either by gold or by yellow.
—adj.
  1. of the tincture, or metal, gold: a lion or.

OR

Pronunciation: (ôr), [key]
  1. a Boolean operator that returns a positive result when either or both operands are positive.

OR

Pronunciation: [key]
  1. on (one's own) recognizance.
  2. operating room.
  3. operations research.
  4. Oregon (approved esp. for use with zip code).
  5. owner's risk.

-or

Pronunciation: [key]
  1. a suffix occurring in loanwords from Latin, directly or through Anglo-French, usually denoting a condition or property of things or persons, sometimes corresponding to qualitative adjectives ending in (ardor; honor; horror; liquor; pallor; squalor; torpor; tremor); a few other words that originally ended in different suffixes have been assimilated to this group (behavior; demeanor; glamour).

-or

Pronunciation: [key]
  1. a suffix forming animate or inanimate agent nouns, occurring originally in loanwords from Anglo-French (debtor; lessor; tailor; traitor); it now functions in English as an orthographic variant of, usually joined to bases of Latin origin, in imitation of borrowed Latin words containing the suffix(and its alternant -sor). The association with Latinate vocabulary may impart a learned look to the resultant formations, which often denote machines or other less tangible entities which behave in an agentlike way: descriptor; plexor; projector; repressor; sensor; tractor.

O.R.

Pronunciation: [key]
  1. owner's risk.
Random House Unabridged Dictionary, Copyright © 1997, by Random House, Inc., on Infoplease.
See also:
  • or (Thesaurus)