O`ri*en*ta"tion (?), n. [Cf. F. orientation.]

1. The act or process of orientating; determination of the points of the compass, or the east point, in taking bearings.

2. 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.

3. 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.

4. Fig.: A return to first principles; an orderly arrangement.

The task of orientation undertaken in this chapter.

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