ENGLISH
REFERENCE

ora

n. countable
C2 Proficiency US //ˈɔɹə// UK //ˈɔːɹɐ// ora Archaic

n. an old word for an hour or a specific time of day. You will mostly see this in very old books or poems.

n. a historical unit of time or a specific hour, derived from the Latin word for hour. Primarily encountered in archaic literary contexts or specific historical legal texts.


SIMPLE

The clock struck the ora of midnight.

CONTEXTUAL

In the ancient manuscript, the monk recorded the exact ora of the solar eclipse.

COMPLEX

The poet used the term ora to evoke a sense of timelessness, harkening back to a period when the measurement of the day was tied to the canonical hours.

Synonyms
Origin

* (given name): First appeared in the 19th century when similar sounding names like Cora, Dora and Nora were in fashion. Possibly shortened from Aurelia, sometimes spelled Ora Lee, or, Aura Lea, in the American civil war song. * (Italian commune): Borrowed from Italian Ora

Usage

Archaic; almost entirely replaced by 'hour' in modern English.

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