Word.ws English Dictionary

east

/iːst/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

British/ɪjst/

east noun: the direction of the earth's rotation, specifically 90°.

east: the direction of the earth's rotation, specifically 90°
Image: El Grafo, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

east (plural easts)

  1. The direction of the earth's rotation, specifically 90°.
    • Portsmouth is to the east of Southampton.
    • We live in the east of the country.
  2. The eastern region or area; the inhabitants thereof.
    • We, in the west, agreed amongst ourselves that a penitentiary should be erected with our half of the money arising as above stated; and the east agreed to improve the country in their vicinity with the other half.1855, John Reynolds, My Own Times: Embracing Also the History of My Life, page 271
  3. In a church: the direction of the altar and chancel; the direction faced by the priest when celebrating ad orientem.
    • A few [Anglican churches in South Carolina, Virginia and Maryland] are oriented other than due [geographic] east—St. Paul's, St. George's, and Prince George's parish churches face northeast and St. Andrew's, southeast. […] Throughout the book I refer directionally to the altar and chancel of St....2014 April 11, Paul Porwoll, Against All Odds: History of Saint Andrew's Parish Church, Charleston, 1706–2013, Bloomington, Ind.: WestBow Press, →ISBN, pages 364–365
    • However, in Mies' chapel, liturgical east is magnetic west.2018, Anat Geva, Modernism and American Mid-20th Century Sacred Architecture, Routledge, →ISBN

Adjective

east (not comparable)

  1. Situated or lying in or towards the east; eastward.
    Synonyms:
    eastward
  2. Blowing (as wind) from the east.
    Synonyms:
    easterly
  3. Of or pertaining to the east; eastern.
  4. From the East; oriental.
    Synonyms:
    oriental
  5. Designating, or situated in, the liturgical east.
    • the east front of a cathedral
    • 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.2014, Paul Porwoll, Against All Odds: History of Saint Andrew's Parish Church, Charleston, 1706-2013, WestBow Press, →ISBN, page 365

Adverb

east (comparative further east or farther east, superlative furthest east or farthest east)

  1. Towards the east; eastwards.
    Synonyms:
    eastwards

Proper noun capitalized: East

East (countable and uncountable, plural Easts)

  1. Any of various particular regions named for the cardinal direction in which they lie.
    • […] I sat down and wrote, / In such a hand as when a field of corn / Bows all its ears before the roaring East; […]1847, Alfred Tennyson, “Part I”, in The Princess: A Medley, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 23
    • Up the two terrace flights of steps the rain ran wildly, and beat at the great door, like a swift messenger rousing those within; uneasy rushes of wind went through the hall,[…]. East, West, North, and South, through the woods, four heavy-treading, unkempt figures crushed the high grass and cracked...1859, Charles Dickens, “Fire Rises”, in A Tale of Two Cities, London: Chapman and Hall, […], →OCLC, book II (The Golden Thread), page 158
    1. The Eastern world; the regions, primarily situated in the Eastern Hemisphere, whose culture is derived from Arabia, India, Persia or China.
      • I remember a hearty welcome; a prodigious supper, which would have fed a whole village in the East; […]1868 January 4 – June 6, [William] Wilkie Collins, “Second Period. The Discovery of the Truth. (1848–1849.) […] [Third Narrative. Contributed by Franklin Blake.]”, in The Moonstone. A Romance. […]...
      • ¹⁰ In any event, Darius' visitors urged him to "establish the statute and sign the writing, in order for it not to be changed, according to the law of the Medes and the Persians, which is not annulled." (Daniel 6:8) In the ancient East, the will of a king was often regarded as absolute. This...1999, Pay Attention to Daniel's Prophecy!, Brooklyn, NY: Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania, →OCLC, →OL, page 118
    2. The Eastern Bloc; the eastern countries of Europe.
    3. (historical) the Soviet Union and its socialist allies during the Cold War.
    4. (historical) The Eastern Roman Empire.
    5. That part of the Christian Church whose traditions and practices originated in the former territories of the Eastern Roman Empire, including the Eastern Orthodox Church, Eastern Catholic Churches, Oriental Orthodox Church, and Church of the East.
      • The words may suggest that the Roman rite is in some way superior to those of the East: a fallacy now equally reprobated by Rome.1947, Archdale A. King, “Preface”, in The Rites of Eastern Christendom, volume I, Rome: Catholic Book Agency, page XI
    6. The eastern states of the United States.
    7. A civil parish of Kings County, Prince Edward Island, Canada.
  2. A personification of the wind from the east.
    • Near-synonyms: easter, levanter
    Synonyms:
    easter, levanter
  3. A surname.

east meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

east in Hindi

compass point
पूर्व pūrv, मशरिक़ maśriq, शर्क़ śarq, शर्क śark, पूरब pūrab, पूर्वा pūrvā

east in Tamil

compass point
கிழக்கு kiḻakku

east in Marathi

east
पूर्व pūrva

east in Urdu

compass point
مَشْرِق maśriq, شَرْق śarq, پُورَب pūrab
More languagesFewer languages
east in Bengali
পূর্ব purbo
east in Telugu
తూర్పు tūrpu, తూర్పుగా tūrpugā
east in Malayalam
കിഴക്ക് kiḻakkŭ
east in Kannada
ಪೂರ್ವ pūrva
east in Punjabi
ਪੂਰਬ pūrab, پُورَب pūrab
east in Gujarati
પૂર્વ pūrva
east in Odia
ପୂର୍ବ purba
east in Sanskrit
पूर्वा pūrvā, पूर्व pūrva
east in Sinhala
නැගෙනහිර nægenahira
east in Assamese
পূব pubo
east in Nepali
पूर्व pūrva
east in Pashto
ختيځ xatíj, شرق šarq
east in Tagalog
silangan
east in Arabic
شَرْق šarq, مَشْرِق mašriq, شَرْقِيٌّ šarqiyyun
east in Malay
timur
east in Indonesian
timur
east in Persian
مَشْرِق mašriq, خَاوَر xāwar, شَرْق šarq, خاوَر xâvar
east in Thai
ทิศตะวันออก tít dtà-wan-ɔ̀ɔk, ตะวันออก dtà-wan-ɔ̀ɔk, บูรพา buu-rá-paa
east in Vietnamese
đông, phía đông, hướng đông, phương đông
east in Myanmar
အရှေ့ a.hre., ပုဗ္ဗ pubba.
Dhivehi
އިރުމަތި irumati

Examples of east in a sentence

  • The sun rises in the east.
  • The levanter wind is in/from the east.
  • In a few hours the birds come to it from all points of the compass – east, west, north, and south […]1895, Thomas Hardy, Jude the Obscure:
  • The tapestry by Graham Sutherland that occupies the whole wall of the liturgical east and geographic north of the cathedral is recognisable to the point of visual exhaustion.2019, Sarah Hosking, "Coventry Cathedral", in Prickett Stephen Prickett, Edinburgh Companion to the Bible and the Arts, Edinburgh...

All 40 example sentences with east

Synonyms of east

Antonyms

All synonyms and antonyms of east

Forms of east

Noun
pluraleasts
Adverb
comparativefurther east
comparativefarther east
superlativefurthest east
superlativefarthest east
Proper noun
pluralEasts
alternative formEastes

Plural of east: easts

Origin of east

From Middle English est, from Old English ēast, from Proto-West Germanic *austr, from Proto-Germanic *austrą, from Proto-Germanic *austraz, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂éwsteros (“east”). Cognates Cognate with Scots aist (“east”), North Frisian uast, ååst, ööst (“east”), Saterland Frisian Aaste (“east”), West Frisian east (“east”), Dutch oost (“east”), German Ost (“east”), Danish and Norwegian Bokmål øst (“east”), Faroese eystur (“east”), Icelandic austur (“east”), Norwegian Nynorsk aust, øst (“east”), Swedish ost, öst, öster (“east”); also with Avestan 𐬎𐬱𐬀𐬯𐬙𐬀𐬭𐬀 (ušastara, “eastern”), Latin auster (“south”).

By proprialization from east.

Words formed from east

Phrases with east

164 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with east

12 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about east

What does east mean?
East means the direction of the earth's rotation, specifically 90°.
What is east in Hindi?
East in Hindi is पूर्व (pūrv), मशरिक़ (maśriq), शर्क़ (śarq). See East meaning in Hindi.
How do you use east in a sentence?
The sun rises in the east.
What part of speech is east?
East can be a noun, an adjective, an adverb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce east?
East is pronounced /iːst/.
What is the plural of east?
The plural of east is easts.

Words near east in the dictionary

  1. Eason
  2. Easons
  3. easse
  4. Eassie
  5. Eassies
  6. east
  7. East Acton
  8. East Africa
  9. East Africa Time
  10. East African
  11. East African cedar

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: east (page history and authors); East (page history and authors); पूर्व (Marathi) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-east.ogg, En-uk-east.ogg.

Cite this entry: “east.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/east. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.