The word “or” is a coordinating conjunction used to connect alternatives, choices, or possibilities. Writers use it to present options, contrast ideas, or build suspense. The examples below are drawn from authentic works to show how “or” appears in real writing.
Real Sentences for Or
When the war broke out he left us, nor did I see him again for some fifteen or sixteen years.
Source: A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs
20 words, 93 characters
Or were they simply fools or cowards, submitting blindly, because they had not the wit nor the will to do otherwise?
Source: King Coal by Upton Sinclair
21 words, 116 characters
She would impose her will, but her will would be only that a person or two shouldn’t lose a benefit by not submitting if they could be made to submit.
Source: The Wings of the Dove by Henry James
30 words, 150 characters
I am not given to needless worrying, but the more I tried to convince myself that all was well with Powell, and that the dots I had seen on his trail were antelope or wild horses, the less I was able to assure myself.
Source: A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs
44 words, 217 characters
The morning of Powell’s departure was, like nearly all Arizona mornings, clear and beautiful; I could see him and his little pack animals picking their way down the mountainside toward the valley, and all during the morning I would catch occasional glimpses of them as they topped a hog back or came out upon a level plateau.
Source: A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs
57 words, 325 characters
He seemed always to be laughing; and he entered into the sports of the children with the same hearty good fellowship he displayed toward those pastimes in which the men and women of his own age indulged; or he would sit for an hour at a time entertaining my old grandmother with stories of his strange, wild life in all parts of the world.
Source: A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs
64 words, 339 characters
More examples coming soon.
