From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishoracleor‧a‧cle /ˈɒrəkəl $ ˈɔː-, ˈɑː-/ noun [countable] 1 RMsomeone who the ancient Greeks believed could communicate with the gods, who gave advice to people or told them what would happen2 RMa message given by an oracle3 ADVISEa person or book that gives advice and information – used humorously
Examples from the Corpus
oracle• His Democratic Party loyalty turned him into an oracle who foresaw electoral disaster for his party in 1980.• Apollo's oracle at Didyma near Miletus recommended an attack on the church.• At Delphi where he went to consult the oracle, the priestess looked at the matter just as he did.• Perhaps Zeus consulted the oracle of Nyx, the primordial source of all, in order that he himself become fruitful.• It was a brave deed, for the oracle had said that he who landed first would be the first to die.• The Bible as holy literature, the oracles of the Logos, has become for them an inanimate object of scientific investigation.• This oracle speaks of a brother as the instrument of death, which fits with the case as it is yet known.Origin oracle (1300-1400) French Latin oraculum, from orare; → ORATION 