# orientation

Pronunciation: say "or-ee-en-TAY-shuhn" /ˌɔɹiɛnˈteɪʃən/

## Noun

1. The relative physical position or facing direction of something compared to its surroundings.
   - Simple: The way something is turned or pointed compared to other things.
   - _The orientation of the antenna determines the signal strength._
   - _Surveyors recorded the rock layer's orientation relative to magnetic north._
2. Introductory events that help new students become familiar with a school and its workings.
   - Simple: A set of events that help new students get to know their school.
   - _The university holds orientation for incoming freshmen every August._
   - _During orientation, students tour the campus and meet their advisors._
3. Ellipsis of sexual orientation. — Ellipsis of sexual orientation.
   - Simple: Short form of sexual orientation. Used when the subject is already clear from context.
   - _The anonymous survey asked about both gender and orientation._
   - _New workplace policies prohibit discrimination based on orientation._
4. The process of adjusting and adapting to a new environment or situation.
   - Simple: The process of getting used to a new place or situation.
   - _His orientation to the remote village's customs happened gradually over the first month._
   - _Orientation to a foreign culture often involves learning new social rules._
5. The arrangement of a page with its longer side either vertical (portrait) or horizontal (landscape).
   - Simple: The way a page is set up, either tall (portrait) or wide (landscape).
   - _Switch the document's orientation to landscape for the wide spreadsheet._
   - _The designer chose a portrait orientation for the magazine cover._
6. An inclination, tendency, or general direction of thought, interest, or activity.
   - Simple: A general way of thinking or leaning toward something.
   - _Her research orientation favors fieldwork over laboratory experiments._
   - _The party's economic orientation shifted after the election._
7. An introduction that helps someone become familiar with a new environment.
   - Simple: A first introduction that helps you get to know a new place.
   - _The hospital gives every new nurse an orientation covering its safety procedures._
   - _A brief orientation at the trailhead explained the park's rules._
8. The ability to find one's position or bearings, or the act of doing so.
   - Simple: The ability to know where you are and which way to go.
   - _The dizziness disrupted his orientation, and he had to sit down._
   - _Spatial orientation lets bats navigate in complete darkness._
9. The determining of where something or someone is positioned relative to other things or places.
   - Simple: The act of working out where something is compared to other things.
   - _Orientation of the satellite dish required precise measurement of the angles._
   - _The crew's first task was orientation of the drilling rig relative to the fault line._
10. The building of a Christian church so that its aisle runs east-west with the altar at the eastern end.
   - Simple: Building a church so its long aisle runs east to west, with the altar at the east end.
   - _The medieval church's orientation places its altar squarely toward the east._
   - _Restorers preserved the chapel's orientation along the east-west axis._
11. A choice of which ordered bases of a real vector space count as positively oriented and which as negatively oriented.
   - Simple: A way of choosing which set of directions in a space counts as positive and which as negative.
   - _Swapping two basis vectors reverses the orientation of the space._
   - _A real vector space admits exactly two orientations._
12. The labeling of a parametrized curve as positively or negatively oriented, with an analogous chosen direction for a surface or hypersurface.
   - Simple: A way of choosing a direction to travel along a curve or across a surface.
   - _Reversing the orientation of the curve changes the sign of the line integral._
   - _A Möbius strip cannot be given a consistent orientation._

## Origin

From French orientation; by surface analysis it can be broken down into orient plus the suffix -ation.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/orientation (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).