orientation

• POS: Noun
• HYPHEN: o=ri=en=ta=tion

CIDE DICTIONARY

orientation, n. [Cf. F. orientation.].

•  The act or process of orientating; determination of the points of the compass, or the east point, in taking bearings.  [1913 Webster]
•  The tendency of a revolving body, when suspended in a certain way, to bring the axis of rotation into parallelism with the earth's axis.  [1913 Webster]
•  An aspect or fronting to the east; especially (Arch.), the placing of a church so that the chancel, containing the altar toward which the congregation fronts in worship, will be on the east end.  [1913 Webster]
•  A return to first principles; an orderly arrangement.  [1913 Webster]

  "The task of orientation undertaken in this chapter."  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

orientation, n.
1 the act or an instance of orienting; the state of being oriented.
2 a a relative position. b a person's attitude or adjustment in relation to circumstances, esp. politically or psychologically.
3 an introduction to a subject or situation; a briefing.
4 the faculty by which birds etc. find their way home from a distance.

Idiom

orientation course esp. US a course giving information to newcomers to a university etc.

Derivative

orientational adj.

Etymology

app. f. ORIENT

THESAURUS

orientation

acclimation, acclimatization, accommodation, accustoming, adaptation, adaption, adjustment, aim, alignment, arrangement, aspect, assimilation, attitude, azimuth, bearing, bearings, bent, breaking, breaking-in, briefing, case hardening, celestial navigation, conditioning, course, current, dead reckoning, direction, direction line, disorientation, domestication, drift, exposure, familiarization, fix, frontage, habituation, hardening, heading, helmsmanship, housebreaking, inclination, initiation, instruction, introduction, inurement, lay, layout, lie, line, line of direction, line of march, line of position, location, naturalization, navigation, pilotage, piloting, placement, placing, point, position, position line, positioning, preparation, quarter, radio bearing, range, run, seasoning, set, set-up, situation, steerage, steering, taming, tendency, tenor, track, training, trend, way

ROGET THESAURUS

orientation

Laterality

N laterality, side, flank, quarter, lee, hand, cheek, jowl, jole, wing, profile, temple, parietes, loin, haunch, hip, beam, gable, gable end, broadside, lee side, points of the compass, East, Orient, Levant, West, orientation, lateral, sidelong, collateral, parietal, flanking, skirting, flanked, sideling, many sided, multilateral, bilateral, trilateral, quadrilateral, Eastern, orient, oriental, Levantine, Western, occidental, Hesperian, sideways, sidelong, broadside on, on one side, abreast, alongside, beside, aside, by the side of, side by side, cheek by jowl, to windward, to leeward, laterally, right and left, on her beam ends, his cheek the may of days outworn.