orientation

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• noun The act of orienting or the state of being oriented.
• noun Location or position relative to the points of the compass.
• noun The construction of a church so that its longitudinal axis has an east-west direction with the main altar usually at the eastern end.
• noun The direction followed in the course of a trend, movement, or development.
• noun A tendency of thought; a general inclination.
• noun Sexual orientation.
• noun An adjustment or adaptation to a new environment, situation, custom, or set of ideas.
• noun Introductory instruction concerning a new situation.
• noun Psychology Awareness of the objective world in relation to one's self.

from The Century Dictionary.

• noun Arrangement; distribution.
• noun In chem., the relative position of the atoms or radicals in a molecule.
• noun The act of turning or the state of being turned toward the east.
• noun Such a position of a corpse in a grave that the head is toward the west and the feet toward the east.
• noun The construction or position of a church so that it has that end which contains the chancel or sanctuary in the direction of the east.
• noun Hence, the position of a building or of any object with reference to any point of the compass.
• noun In crystallography, the position of a crystal — of its faces, cleavage-planes, optic axes or axes of elasticity, etc. — defined with reference to certain assumed directions, especially those of the crystallographic axes.
• noun The process of determining the points of the compass, or the east point, in taking bearings.
• noun Hence The act of taking one's mental bearings; ascertainment of one's true position, as in a novel situation, or with reference to new ideas, new studies, etc., as if by determining the points of the compass.
• noun The process of determining direction or relative position in general.
• noun In crystallography, the process of placing a crystal in proper position so as to show the relation of its planes to the assumed axes.
• noun In zoology, the faculty or instinct by which birds and other animals find their way home after being carried to a distance.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

• noun The act or process of orientating; determination of the points of the compass, or the east point, in taking bearings.
• noun The tendency of a revolving body, when suspended in a certain way, to bring the axis of rotation into parallelism with the earth's axis.
• noun An aspect or fronting to the east; especially (Arch.), the placing of a church so that the chancel, containing the altar toward which the congregation fronts in worship, will be on the east end.
• noun A return to first principles; an orderly arrangement.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

• noun uncountable The act of orienting or the state of being oriented.
• noun uncountable A position relative to compass bearings
• noun uncountable The construction of a Christian church to have its aisle in an east-west direction with the altar at the east end
• noun countable An inclination, tendency or direction
• noun countable The ability to orient
• noun countable An adjustment to a new environment
• noun countable An introduction to a (new) environment
• noun typography, countable The direction of print across the page; landscape or portrait
• noun mathematics, countable The choice of which ordered bases are "positively" oriented and which are "negatively" oriented on a real vector space

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

• noun position or alignment relative to points of the compass or other specific directions
• noun an integrated set of attitudes and beliefs
• noun a person's awareness of self with regard to position and time and place and personal relationships
• noun a predisposition in favor of something
• noun the act of orienting
• noun a course introducing a new situation or environment