west

1. 1
   the directionnoununcountable

   The direction opposite to the one in which the earth rotates; on a compass, the bearing of 270°.

   The town lies about twenty miles to the west of the state capital.

   The pilot turned the small plane toward the west and began to climb.

   UsageA place in the west of a country is inside it; a place to the west of it lies outside.

   Oppositeeast

2. 2
   adjective

   In, facing, or belonging to the west, or the western part of a place.

   Visitors enter the museum through the west entrance on Elm Street.

   From the west windows of the cabin you can watch the sun go down over the lake.

   Similarwestern

   Oppositeeast, eastern

3. 3
   adverb

   Toward the west, or in the direction of the west.

   After the bridge, the highway bears west toward the coast.

   Forecasters expect the storm to keep tracking west across the Gulf.

   UsageNo preposition or article: head west, turn west. With the noun, say to the west.

   Similarwestward

   Oppositeeast, eastward

4. 4
   noununcountable

   The western region of a country or area, or the people who live in it.

   The west of the state is mostly wheat farms and small towns.

   In the election, the west voted heavily for the opposition while the capital stayed loyal.

   UsageUsually the west of a place: the west of the island.

   Oppositeeast

5. 5
   Europe and Americaproper noun · Westcountable or uncountable

   The countries of Western Europe and North America and their allies, including, during the Cold War, the non-communist bloc.

   The film was a hit across Asia but went almost unnoticed in the West.

   Yoga has become a common form of exercise throughout the West.

   UsageUsually the West, with the and a capital letter: popular in the West.

   OppositeEast

   Note

   Culture and politics draw this boundary, not the compass direction. Australia and New Zealand belong to the western world although they lie on the far side of the globe from Europe, and Latin America is counted in by some writers and left out by others. Source

   Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 3 facts

   • The Western world's boundaries depend on culture and politics rather than compass direction. en.wikipedia.org
   • Australia and New Zealand are included in the Western world despite their geographical position far from Europe. en.wikipedia.org
   • Writers differ over whether Latin America belongs to the Western world. en.wikipedia.org
6. 6
   US frontierproper noun · WestUScountable or uncountable

   The western United States, sometimes not counting the West Coast; used especially of the region in the days of the nineteenth-century Wild West.

   In 1870 the young doctor left Boston for the West, hoping to open a practice in a mining town.

   Water rights remain a fierce political issue across the West.

   OppositeEast

   Note

   An American heading for the West is crossing the country, not leaving it. When the narrator of the American novelist Winston Churchill's The Celebrity (1897) leaves New York for the West, the western states are meant, and only the sentence tells this apart from the western world. The name still carries the color of the nineteenth-century Wild West. Source

   Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 5 facts

   • Winston Churchill was an American novelist. home.nps.gov
   • Winston Churchill wrote The Celebrity. gutenberg.org
   • First published in 1897, although the first edition bears the date 1898. en.wikipedia.org
   • The narrator leaves New York for a destination within the United States; the context establishes the regional meaning of West. gutenberg.org
   • The Wild West is associated with the nineteenth-century American frontier. en.wikipedia.org
7. 7
   proper noun · Westcountable or uncountable

   The regions or countries that lie to the west of a particular place, whether that place is named or simply understood.

   To the coastal traders, the West meant the mountain kingdoms beyond the pass.

   For the old traders on the eastern coast, the West meant the mountain towns they reached only after weeks of travel inland.

   OppositeEast

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