# west

Pronunciation: say "WEST" /wɛst/

## Noun

1. The direction opposite to the one in which the earth rotates; on a compass, the bearing of 270°.
   - Simple: The direction opposite to the way the earth spins, at 270 degrees on a compass.
   - _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._
4. The western region of a country or area, or the people who live in it.
   - Simple: The western part of a place, or the people who live there.
   - _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._

## Adjective

2. In, facing, or belonging to the west, or the western part of a place.
   - Simple: In or toward the west side, or part of the west 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._
8. Of a wind, blowing from the west, not toward it.
   - Simple: Describes a wind that blows from the west.
   - _A cold west wind swept across the lake all afternoon._
   - _Tonight's forecast calls for light west winds and clearing skies._

## Adverb

3. Toward the west, or in the direction of the west.
   - Simple: Going toward the west.
   - _After the bridge, the highway bears west toward the coast._
   - _Forecasters expect the storm to keep tracking west across the Gulf._

## Proper noun · West

5. The countries of Western Europe and North America and their allies, including, during the Cold War, the non-communist bloc.
   - Simple: The countries of Western Europe and North America and their allies, thought of as one group.
   - _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._
6. The western United States, sometimes not counting the West Coast; used especially of the region in the days of the nineteenth-century Wild West. *(US)*
   - Simple: The western part of the United States, especially in the 1800s, the time of the 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._
7. The regions or countries that lie to the west of a particular place, whether that place is named or simply understood.
   - Simple: The lands that lie to the west of a certain place.
   - _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._

## Other meanings

- (proper noun) An English family name from Middle English, first given to someone who lived west of the village or who had arrived from the west.
- (adjective) Coming from the West, the western part of the world.
- (verb) To move or travel toward the west; of the sun, to set.
- (proper noun) In bridge and similar layouts, the position on the left of a diagram, or the person in it.
- (adjective) Lying in, or marking, the liturgical west: the part of a church opposite to, and farthest from, the part that holds the chancel.
- (noun) In a church, the direction toward the end opposite the main altar, regardless of the building's actual compass orientation.

## Origin

**Meanings 5–7** — From Old English west, through Germanic from an Indo-European root meaning "evening", the side where the sun goes down. The names and the English surname come from the direction; as a Finnish surname it is an Americanized form of Vesterinen.
**Meanings 1–4, 8** — From Middle English and Old English west, from Proto-Germanic *westrą, from Proto-Indo-European *wek(ʷ)speros ("evening"), the time the sun sets in the west. Latin vesper and Greek hésperos ("evening") come from the same root.

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