oriented

1. 1
   adjectivein compounds

   Having something as a main concern or guiding principle; focused on it, as the second part of a compound.

   The firm wants detail-oriented people who can check contracts line by line.

   Critics called the new tax plan business-oriented and unfair to renters.

   Similarfocused

   Note

   It lives mostly as the second half of a compound: detail-oriented, business-oriented, goal-oriented. Before a noun the compound is hyphenated, a detail-oriented editor, and it usually keeps the hyphen after the verb too, as in she is very detail-oriented. Focused is the near-synonym, but it needs on: focused on detail.

2. 2
   adjective

   Placed or pointed in a particular position or direction.

   A correctly oriented antenna picks up a much clearer signal.

   Line up the tiles so that each one is oriented the same way.

   Similarpositioned, aligned, pointed, angled

3. 3
   verbUS

   Past tense and past participle of orient.

   The architects oriented the chapel so that its altar faced east.

   The studio has oriented its new shows toward younger viewers.

   Note

   One spelling serves for both the simple past, they oriented the map, and the past participle, she has oriented herself. The verb is especially common in American English, and its participle easily settles into an adjective, as in a chapel oriented east or the positioned meaning.

4. 4
   adjective

   Having been given an introduction to a place or subject; often followed by with or in.

   After a week of tours, the new nurses felt fully oriented with the hospital.

   She is well oriented in tax law, though she has never practiced it.

   Similaracquainted, familiar, versed

   Oppositedisoriented, unfamiliar

5. 5
   adjective

   In various technical senses in geometry and topology, admitting or equipped with a notion of handedness, so that clockwise can be told apart from counterclockwise.

   Integrating a differential form of top degree requires an oriented manifold.

   An oriented basis of the plane fixes which rotations count as counterclockwise.

   Oppositeunoriented

   Note

   Mathematicians keep two words apart here: a space is orientable when a consistent handedness can be chosen for it, and oriented once that choice has actually been made. A sphere can be oriented; a paper strip given a half twist and joined at the ends cannot, since a small clockwise loop carried once around it returns counterclockwise.

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