in rhetoric, a speech or harangue, composed according to the rules of oratory, and spoken in public.

Oration may be all reduced to three kinds, viz. the demonstrative, deliberative, and judicial. To the demonstrative kind belong panegyrics, genethliaca, epithalamia, congratulations, &c. To the deliberative kind belong persuasion, exhortation, &c. And to the judicial kind belong accusation, confutation, &c.