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:
“Fiction reveals truths that reality obscures.”
—Jessamyn West (1902–1984)
“Because hypocrisy stinks in the nostrils one is likely to rate it as a more powerful agent for destruction than it is.”
—Rebecca West (1892–1983)
“These emblems of twilight have seen at length,
And the man red-faced and tall seen, leaning
In the day of his strength
Not as a pine, but the stiff form
Against the west pillar....”
—Allen Tate (1899–1979)