orientation

Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Email
American Heritage Dictionary:

o·ri·en·ta·tion

Top
(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.


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.

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

Download Computer Desktop Encyclopedia to your PC, iPhone or Android.



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.

Previous:Organized Labor, Organizational Structure, Organizational Planning
Next:Original Cost, Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM), Original Equity
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

Previous:Ore, Oreo, Ordinaryand Necessary Business Expenses
Next:Oriented Strand Board (OSB), Original Cost
Roget's Thesaurus:

orientation

Top

noun

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

Top

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.

Top
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.


Top
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.

Top

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'

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

  See crossword solutions for the clue Orientation.
Top

Orientation may refer to:

Television

Mathematics

See also


Translations:

Orientation

Top

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 Web:

orientation

Top
Some good "orientation" pages on the web:

Math
mathworld.wolfram.com

Post a question - any question - to the WikiAnswers community:

Copyrights: