orientation

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. The act of orienting or the state of being oriented.
2. n. Location or position relative to the points of the compass.
3. n. The construction of a church so that its longitudinal axis has an east-west direction with the main altar usually at the eastern end.
4. n. The direction followed in the course of a trend, movement, or development.
5. n. A tendency of thought; a general inclination: a Marxist orientation.
6. n. Sexual orientation.
7. n. An adjustment or adaptation to a new environment, situation, custom, or set of ideas.
8. n. Introductory instruction concerning a new situation: orientation for incoming students.
9. n. Psychology Awareness of the objective world in relation to one's self.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. The act of turning or the state of being turned toward the east. Specifically — The position of worshipers facing toward the east, or, in Christian worship, toward that end of a church which is known as the eastern end; especially (ecclesiastical), that position of a priest celebrating the eucharist in which he faces the altar; the eastward position.
2. n. Such a position of a corpse in a grave that the head is toward the west and the feet toward the east.
3. n. The construction or position of a church so that it has that end which contains the chancel or sanctuary in the direction of the east.
4. n. Hence, the position of a building or of any object with reference to any point of the compass.
5. n. In crystallography, the position of a crystal — of its faces, cleavage-planes, optic axes or axes of elasticity, etc. — defined with reference to certain assumed directions, especially those of the crystallographic axes.
6. n. The process of determining the points of the compass, or the east point, in taking bearings.
7. n. Hence The act of taking one's mental bearings; ascertainment of one's true position, as in a novel situation, or with reference to new ideas, new studies, etc., as if by determining the points of the compass.
8. n. The process of determining direction or relative position in general.
9. n. In crystallography, the process of placing a crystal in proper position so as to show the relation of its planes to the assumed axes.
10. n. In zoology, the faculty or instinct by which birds and other animals find their way home after being carried to a distance. It is well illustrated by homing pigeons. (See homing.) A striking instance of orientation is also afforded by swallows. Thus, a swallow nesting in New England, for example, and wintering in Panama, can return to the rafter in the barn where its nest was the previous year. All the regular and periodical migrations of birds imply the faculty of orientation.
11. n. Arrangement; distribution.
12. n. In chem., the relative position of the atoms or radicals in a molecule.

Wiktionary

1. n. uncountable The act of orienting or the state of being oriented.
2. n. uncountable A position relative to compass bearings
3. n. uncountable The construction of a Christian church to have its aisle in an east-west direction with the altar at the east end
4. n. countable An inclination, tendency or direction
5. n. countable The ability to orient
6. n. countable An adjustment to a new environment
7. n. countable An introduction to a (new) environment
8. n. typography, countable The direction of print across the page; landscape or portrait
9. n. mathematics, countable The choice of which ordered bases are "positively" oriented and which are "negatively" oriented on a real vector space

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. The act or process of orientating; determination of the points of the compass, or the east point, in taking bearings.
2. n. 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.
3. n. 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.
4. n. A return to first principles; an orderly arrangement.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. position or alignment relative to points of the compass or other specific directions
2. n. an integrated set of attitudes and beliefs
3. n. a person's awareness of self with regard to position and time and place and personal relationships
4. n. a predisposition in favor of something
5. n. the act of orienting
6. n. a course introducing a new situation or environment