orientation

noun

• The determination of the relative position of something or someone.
• The relative physical position or direction of something.
• 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.
• The ability to orient.

  "The homing instinct in pigeons is an example of orientation."

• An adjustment to a new environment.
• An introduction to a (new) environment.
• The direction of print across the page; landscape or portrait.
• The choice of which ordered bases are "positively" oriented and which are "negatively" oriented on a real vector space.
• The designation of a parametrised curve as "positively" or "negatively" oriented (or "nonorientable"); the analogous description of a surface or hypersurface.