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# orient

«orient» in Mova's school dictionary: **or which way you are facing, as in "orient yourself with…** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples.

### part of speech

verb (orient, orients, oriented, orienting); noun (the Orient)

### meaning for a pupil

1) To find out or work out where you are or which way you are facing, as in "orient yourself with a map". [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/O/orient/#m1)

2) To turn or place something to face a certain way, as in "oriented north". [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/O/orient/#m2)

3) To aim something at a particular group or purpose, as in "a course oriented to beginners". [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/O/orient/#m3)

4) (the Orient, old-fashioned) The countries of East Asia. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/O/orient/#m4)

### sense in the lessons

Used in geography and outdoor education (orienteering, using a compass to orient a map), in maths (orientation of a shape), and in everyday life (a new pupil getting oriented at school). The noun "the Orient" is old-fashioned and now usually replaced by "East Asia" or "Asia".

### examples

- Use the compass to orient the map to north. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/O/orient/#x1)
- It took me a week to orient myself in the new school. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/O/orient/#x2)
- The house is oriented to face the sun. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/O/orient/#x3)
- The church is oriented east, as many old churches are. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/O/orient/#x4)
- The game is oriented towards young children. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/O/orient/#x5)
- Marco Polo travelled to the Orient. (old-fashioned) [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/O/orient/#x6)

### note

UK also uses "orientate" (orientate, orientated) with the same meaning; both are correct. Noun "orientation". "The Orient" and "oriental" sound old-fashioned and can offend when used about people; say "East Asia" or name the country.

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «orient» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/O/orient/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.