orient
verb · noun
Simple meaning
To align or place so that his, her, or its east side, north side, etc., is positioned toward the corresponding points of the compass.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
awreeentSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈɔɹiɛnt
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
verb
transitiveby extension
To align or place (a person or object) so that his, her, or its east side, north side, etc., is positioned toward the corresponding points of the compass; (specifically, surveying) to rotate (a map attached to a plane table) until the line of direction between any two of its points is parallel to the corresponding direction in nature.
transitive
To build or place (something) so as to face eastward.
transitive
To direct towards or point at a particular direction.
transitiveoften reflexivefiguratively
To familiarize (oneself or someone) with a circumstance or situation.
transitivefiguratively
To set the focus of (something) so as to appeal or relate to a certain group.
Cause to point
“Orient the house towards the West.”
noun
Usually preceded by the: a region or a part of the world to the east of a certain place; countries of Asia, the East (especially East Asia).
The part of the horizon where the sun first appears in the morning; the east.
by extension
The brilliance or colour of a high-quality pearl.
A pear cultivar from the United States
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B2 · Upper Intermediate (estimated)
- Frequency
- Moderately Common
- Typical Use
- Neutral / general English
More ways to use orient
- “Orient the house towards the West.”verb
- “We had to orient ourselves in the forest.”verb
- “The dean of students tries to orient the freshmen.”verb
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Inflected forms
Grammatical variations of the same word.
Adjusted or located in relation to surroundings or circumstances.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
A database management system designed to manage an object-oriented database.
A database in which the operations carried out on information items (data objects) are considered part of their definition.
A programming language designed for use on a specific class of computers.
A terminal designed for a particular application.
Related words
Connected by subject or meaning, not by word formation.
Dark brown cockroach originally from orient now nearly cosmopolitan in distribution.
Introduced into United States from the Orient.
Dark brown cockroach originally from orient now nearly cosmopolitan in distribution.
Dark brown cockroach originally from orient now nearly cosmopolitan in distribution.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: usually preceded by the
Antonyms
Sense: to align or place (a person
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.