West

West is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating direction or geography.

West is one of the four cardinal directions or compass points. It is the opposite of east and is perpendicular to north and south.


To go west using a compass for navigation, one needs to set a bearing or azimuth of 270°.

West is the direction opposite that of the Earth's rotation on its axis, and is therefore the general direction towards which the Sun sets.

During the Cold War "the West" was often used to refer to the NATO camp as opposed to the Warsaw Pact and non-aligned nations. The expression survives, with an increasingly ambiguous meaning.

Moving continuously west is following a circle of latitude, which, except in the case of the equator, is not a great circle.

The word west is derived from the name of one of the four dwarves in Norse mythology, Norðri, Suðri, Austri and Vestri, who each represented one of the directions of the world. cf Greek hesperus and Roman vesper.

Read more about West:  Symbolic Meanings

Famous quotes containing the word west:

    O native country, repossessed by thee!
    For, rather than I’ll to the West return,
    I’ll beg of thee first here to have mine urn.
    Weak I am grown, and must in short time fall;
    Give thou my sacred relics burial.
    Robert Herrick (1591–1674)

    Just how difficult it is to write biography can be reckoned by anybody who sits down and considers just how many people know the real truth about his or her love affairs.
    —Rebecca West [Cicily Isabel Fairfield] (1892–1983)