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Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. n. Western lands or regions; the west.
  2. n. The countries of Europe and the Western Hemisphere.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. n. The region of the setting sun; the western part of the heavens; the west: opposed to orient.
  2. n. [cap. or lowercase] With the definite article, the west; western countries; specifically, those countries lying to the west of Asia and of that part of eastern Europe now or formerly constituting in general European Turkey; Christendom. Various countries, as Russia, may be classed either in the Occident or in the Orient.

Wiktionary

  1. n. The part of the horizon where the sun last appears in the evening; that part of the earth towards the sunset; the west; – opposed to orient. Specifically, in former times, Europe as opposed to Asia; now, also, the Western hemisphere.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. n. The part of the horizon where the sun last appears in the evening; that part of the earth towards the sunset; the west; -- opposed to orient. Specifically, in former times, Europe as opposed to Asia; now, also, the Western hemisphere.

WordNet 3.0

  1. n. the countries of (originally) Europe and (now including) North America and South America
  2. n. the hemisphere that includes North America and South America

Etymologies

  1. From Old French occident, from Latin occidentem ("western sky, part of the sky in which the sun sets"), from occido ("go down, set") (Wiktionary)
  2. Middle English, from Old French, from Latin occidēns, occident-, from present participle of occidere, to set (used of the sun); see occasion. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)

Examples

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hypernyms (2)

Words that are more generic or abstract

  1. region
  1. hemisphere

same context (18)

Words that are found in similar contexts

  1. discere
  2. liftin'
  3. ngle
  1. weblike
  2. sweat-damp
  3. elements'
  1. abysm
  2. sinter
  3. makin'
  1. groun'
  2. finger-thick
  3. those
  1. wave-ridingspot
  2. surf-beaten
  3. tuation
  1. unlaid
  2. beginnin'
  3. muove

reverse dictionary (7)

Words that contain this word in their definition

  1. occidental
  1. Occidentalism
  1. occidentally
  1. west
  1. occident
  1. orient
  1. western

tags (5)

Free-form, user-generated categorization

  1. theory
  1. photography
  1. criticism
  1. film
  1. camera arts

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Lists

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Comments

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  • seanahan In my understanding, the original meaning of the word was to set, as in the sun, just as Orient comes from to rise, as in the sun. The sun rises in the east (orient) and sets in the west (Occident). Turkey was known as the Orient (by Romans) and as Anatolia (by Greeks, the word coming from the Greek for east). Eventually, it moved further east, until it reached china. Aug 21, 2008

  • super-logos so is South America. Yet when a person takes Western Lit, I doubt there is much from South America in his book or in the pedagogy. The America Columbus discovered seems to be, in the minds most people here in the US, to be that land mass in North America. Aug 20, 2008

  • mollusque And why is Western Hemisphere used instead of "the Americas"? Parts of Europe and Africa are in the Western Hemisphere. Aug 20, 2008

  • super-logos We say, "Western Literature," not, "Occidental Literature." Why? Aug 20, 2008

  • super-logos Thank you, mollusque. Aug 20, 2008

  • mollusque It refers to the setting sun, which falls toward the western horizon. From occidens, present participle of occidere to fall towards, set, die. Aug 20, 2008

  • super-logos opposite of orient. I love this word. It comes from the Latin meaning to kill or to slay. In pre-Columbian thought, people believed a ship would drop off the edge of the world if it went beyond the horizon. One might really die or be slain if one fell off the edge of the earth! So going west will result in an occidental event. If I am wrong about this word, please correct me. Any other ideas? Aug 20, 2008

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‘occident’ has been looked up 1693 times, added to 20 lists, commented on 7 times, and has a Scrabble score of 13.