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orientation

 
American Heritage Dictionary:

o·ri·en·ta·tion

(ôr'ē-ĕn-tā'shən, -ən-, ōr'-) pronunciation
n.
  1. The act of orienting or the state of being oriented.
  2. Location or position relative to the points of the compass.
  3. The construction of a church so that its longitudinal axis has an east-west direction with the main altar usually at the eastern end.
  4. The direction followed in the course of a trend, movement, or development.
  5. A tendency of thought; a general inclination: a Marxist orientation.
  6. Sexual orientation.
    1. An adjustment or adaptation to a new environment, situation, custom, or set of ideas.
    2. Introductory instruction concerning a new situation: orientation for incoming students.
  7. Psychology. Awareness of the objective world in relation to one's self.

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In architecture, the position of a building on its site. In Mesopotamia and Egypt, as well as in pre-Columbian Central America, a building's important features, such as entrances and passages, faced the rising sun. Mosques are oriented so that the mihrab faces Mecca. Christian churches have usually been oriented with the apse or altar at the eastern end. Orientation is frequently planned to take maximum advantage of daily and seasonal variations of sunlight. A structure's optimal orientation is usually a compromise between its function, location, and the prevailing environmental factors of solar radiation, light, humidity, and wind that make up the site's microclimate.

For more information on orientation, visit Britannica.com.

TechEncyclopedia:

orientation

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In typography, the direction of print across a page. See portrait.

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1. position of a structure on a site relative to sunlight angles and prevailing winds.


2. program or lecture to a newcomer in a school or company.


3. describing the nature of a person’s strength, such as having a technical orientation.

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The position of a structure on a site relative to sunlight angles and prevailing winds.


Example: The house in Figure 134 has a north-south orientation designed to maximize the natural heating effect of the sun in the winter:
 FIG. 134. ORIENTATION
FIG. 134. ORIENTATION

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Next:Oriented Strand Board (OSB), Original Cost
Roget's Thesaurus:

orientation

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noun

    One's place and direction relative to one's surroundings: bearing (often used in plural), location, position, situation. See place.

Antonyms by Answers.com:

orientation

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n

Definition: introduction, adjustment
Antonyms: disorientation, mix-up


1. The placement of a structure on a site with regard to local conditions of sunlight, wind, and drainage.
2. The siting of a Christian church so that the main altar is housed toward the east end of the building, a common ritual disposition.
3. The relationship of a building site plan to the points of a compass.



[De]

The direction of an object from a given position. Sometimes used in place of ‘alignment’, but this is careless usage. All objects and structures will have an orientation whether or not anything is aligned on them.

The ability of a person to be aware of his or her position with respect to both time, place, and circumstantial situation.

Columbia Encyclopedia:

orientation

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orientation, in architecture, the disposition of the parts of a building with reference to the points of the compass. From remote antiquity the traditional belief in the efficacy of religious ceremonials performed at dawn toward the rising sun has influenced the orientation of temples and other sacred structures. In Mesopotamia and Egypt, in Mayan Central America, even at Stonehenge in England, entrances and other important architectural features were designed to point toward the east; the temples of Greece and Rome often, though not invariably, faced the rising sun. In medieval Europe and, consequently, in modern Europe and the Americas, it became customary to have the congregation and the priest at the altar facing east. So strong was this custom that "west front" came to be a generic term for the facade of a church. Some churches were so built that a central line of the axis of the church pointed exactly to the rising sun on the day of the saint for whom the church was named. Such orientation was, however, by no means universal. St. Peter's at Rome, continuing an earlier tradition, faces in the opposite direction. Important secular buildings in the West often face toward the cardinal points of the compass, and the gridiron pattern of a city's streets is frequently so laid out. Practical problems also govern orientations. The disposition of a building in relation to the prevailing wind or to the sun has long been an important consideration in construction. Early commentators on the problem were Xenophon and Vitruvius. Examples of the concern for climatological orientation can be found in ancient Rome, where there were laws regarding the placement and heights of buildings, or in Puebla, Mexico, where in 1554 the streets were planned so that winds would not sweep through the city. Although orientation in accordance with climatic conditions was in many instances ignored in the 19th cent., modern architects have considered it and have tended to design their buildings accordingly.



The location or arrangement of a garden relative to the points of the compass.

Applied to crystals, this means visualizing the disposition of the principal directions (top and bottom, front and back, side to side) within the crystal. It is essential to the recognition of the crystal system to which a crystal belongs, and soon becomes automatic.


Sign Language Videos:

orientation

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sign description: One O-hand circles around the opposite index finger.




i. The determination of the attitude of aircraft by external visual cues.
ii. Turning the instrument or map until the datum point or meridian is aligned with the datum point or true meridian on earth.

Mosby's Dental Dictionary:

orientation

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n

The ability to correctly place oneself in time, space, and relationship to others and one’s work and environment.

Random House Word Menu:

categories related to 'orientation'

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Random House Word Menu by Stephen Glazier
For a list of words related to orientation, see:

  See crossword solutions for the clue Orientation.
Wikipedia on Answers.com:

Orientation

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Orientation may refer to:

Television

Mathematics

See also


Translations:

Orientation

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Dansk (Danish)
n. - orientering, beliggenhed, indstilling, hældning

Nederlands (Dutch)
oriëntatie, oriëntering

Français (French)
n. - (gén, Univ) cours d'introduction, orientation (politique, intellectuelle), tendance (sexuelle), (Archit, Tech) orientation

Deutsch (German)
n. - Ausrichtung, Einweisung, Orientierung(ssinn)

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - προσανατολισμός, (μτφ.) κατατόπιση, ροπή, τάση, κλίση

Italiano (Italian)
orientamento, intenzione, orientazione

Português (Portuguese)
n. - orientação (f)

Русский (Russian)
ориентация

Español (Spanish)
n. - intención, propósito, orientación

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - orientering, inriktning

中文(简体)(Chinese (Simplified))
定方位, 向东方, 适应

中文(繁體)(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 定方位, 向東方, 適應

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 방위, 방침의 결정, 적응

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 順応, オリエンテーション, 方位, 方針, 適応指導

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) توجيه نحو الشرق, تكييف‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮מגמה, נטייה, התמצאות, התמזרחות, הצגת נושא, אוריינטציה‬


Best of the Web:

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Some good "orientation" pages on the web:


Math
mathworld.wolfram.com
 
 
 

 

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American Heritage Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.  Read more
Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. © 1994-2012 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. All rights reserved.  Read more
TechEncyclopedia. THIS DEFINITION IS FOR PERSONAL USE ONLY.
All other reproduction is strictly prohibited without permission from the publisher.
© 1981-2012 The Computer Language Company Inc.  All rights reserved.  Read more
Barron's Business Dictionary. Dictionary of Business Terms. Copyright © 2007 by Barron's Educational Series, Inc. All rights reserved.  Read more
Barron's Real Estate Dictionary. Dictionary of Real Estate Terms. Copyright © 2008 by Barron's Educational Series, Inc. All rights reserved.  Read more
Roget's Thesaurus. Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary Copyright © 1995 byHoughton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.  Read more
Answers Corporation Antonyms by Answers.com. © 1999-present by Answers Corporation. All rights reserved.  Read more
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Architecture & Construction. McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Architecture and Construction. Copyright © 2003 by McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.  Read more
Oxford Dictionary of Archaeology. The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Archaeology. Copyright © 2002, 2003 by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.  Read more
Oxford Dictionary of Sports Science & Medicine. The Oxford Dictionary of Sports Science & Medicine. Copyright © Michael Kent 1998, 2006, 2007. All rights reserved.  Read more
Columbia Encyclopedia. The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition Copyright © 2012, Columbia University Press. Licensed from Columbia University Press. All rights reserved. www.cc.columbia.edu/cu/cup/ Read more
Taylor's Dictionary for Gardeners. Taylor's Dictionary for Gardeners, by Frances Tenenbaum. Copyright © 1997 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.  Read more
Peterson Field Guide to Rocks & Minerals. Peterson Field Guide to Rocks and Minerals, by Frederick H. Pough. Copyright © 1998 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.  Read more
Sign Language Videos. Copyright © 2009 Signing Savvy, LLC. All rights reserved.  Read more
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Aviation. An Illustrated Dictionary of Aviation.. Copyright © 2005 by McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.  Read more
Mosby's Dental Dictionary. Mosby's Dental Dictionary. Copyright © 2004 by Elsevier, Inc. All rights reserved.  Read more
Random House Word Menu. © 2010 Write Brothers Inc. Word Menu is a registered trademark of the Estate of Stephen Glazier. Write Brothers Inc. All rights reserved.  Read more
Bradford's Crossword Solver's Dictionary. Collins Bradford's Crossword Solver's Dictionary © Anne Bradford, 1986, 1993, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2008 HarperCollins Publishers All rights reserved.  Read more
Wikipedia on Answers.com. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article Orientation Read more
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