west
/wɛst/
Word Rarity
Common
Frequency: Zipf frequency 5.29 in modern English
7
Scrabble Score
4
Letters
1
Syllables
4
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
The direction opposite to that of the earth's rotation, specifically 270°.
noun
The western region or area; the inhabitants thereof.
noun
In a church: the direction of the gallery, opposite to the altar, and opposite to the direction faced by the priest when celebrating ad orientem.
adj
Of wind: from the west.
adj
Of or pertaining to the west; western.
adj
From the West; occidental.
adj
Designating, or situated in, the liturgical west, that part of a church which is opposite to, and farthest from, the part containing the chancel.
Example Sentences
- "We used to live in the west of the country."
- "Portugal lies to the west of Spain."
- "In two respects, however, the cathedral [of St. Mary's in Sydney, Australia] differs from English traditions: it is oriented north-south, not east-west; and its main entry is from the south (liturgical west) between the two towers, in the French manner."
- "The seating for honored persons (clergy) is at the liturgical west, opposite the entrance and lectern."
- "In most worship spaces, this will put the thurifer and gospeller facing liturgical west, book bearer facing liturgical east (or the book on the reading desk), and the torch bearers turned inward, facing the book."
- "Throughout the book I refer directionally to the altar and chancel of St. Andrew's as situated at ecclesiastical east (to avoid overcomplicating matters), not geographical or magnetic southeast. Thus, the altar is located at the east end of the church, and the gallery, at the west."
Etymology
PIE word *wek⁽ʷ⁾speros From Middle English west, from Old English west, from Proto-West Germanic *westr (“western”), from Proto-Germanic *westrą (“west”), from Proto-Germanic *westraz (“west”), from Proto-Indo-European *wek⁽ʷ⁾speros (“evening”). Cognates Cognate with Scots wast (“west”), North Frisian waast, weest, wäst (“west”), Saterland Frisian Wääste (“west”), West Frisian and Dutch west (“west”), German West (“west”), Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, and Norwegian Nynorsk vest (“west”), Faroese and Icelandic vestur (“west”), Swedish väst, väster (“west”); also with Irish feascar, feasgar (“evening; vespers”), Cornish gorthugher (“evening”), Manx fastyr (“afternoon, evening; vespers”), Scottish Gaelic feasgar (“afternoon, evening”), Latin vesper (“evening”), Ancient Greek ἕσπερος (hésperos, “evening; western”), Latvian vakars (“evening”), Lithuanian vakaras (“evening”), Czech, Slovak and Slovene večer (“evening”), Kashubian wieczór (“evening”), Polish wieczerz, wieczór (“evening”), Russian вечер (večer, “evening”), Serbo-Croatian вече, вечер, veče, večer (“evening”), Armenian գիշեր (gišer, “night”). Compare also Catalan oest (“west”), French ouest (“west”), Galician oeste, ueste (“west”), Italian ovest (“west”), Portuguese, Spanish oeste (“west”) (all ultimately borrowings of the Old English word).
Origin
Word Breakdown
Usage
- Intransitive verb
- Countable
- Uncountable
- American usage
Inflected Forms
wests (plural)
further west (comparative)
farther west (comparative)
furthest west (superlative)
farthest west (superlative)
wests (present, singular)
westing (participle, present)
wested (participle, past)
wested (past)