Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Situated in, toward, or facing the east.
  • adjective Coming from the east.
  • adjective Native to or growing in the east.
  • adjective Of, relating to, or characteristic of eastern regions or the East.
  • adjective Of or relating to the Eastern Church.
  • adjective Of or relating to the Eastern Orthodox Church.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Situated toward the east or on the part toward the east: as, the eastern side of a town or church; the eastern shore of a bay.
  • Going toward the east, or in the direction of east: as, an eastern route.
  • Coming from the east; easterly.
  • Of or pertaining to the east; Oriental; being or occurring in the east: as, eastern countries; eastern manners; an eastern tour.
  • noun A person living in or belonging to the eastern part of a country or region; specifically, one belonging to one of the countries lying east of Europe; an Oriental.
  • noun [capitalized] A member of the orthodox Oriental or Greek Church: in contradistinction from a Latin or Western.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Situated or dwelling in the east; oriental
  • adjective Going toward the east, or in the direction of east.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Of, facing, situated in, or related to the east
  • adjective of a wind blowing from the east; easterly
  • adjective loosely oriental

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective lying toward or situated in the east
  • adjective from the east; used especially of winds
  • adjective of or characteristic of eastern regions of the United States
  • adjective relating to or characteristic of regions of eastern parts of the world
  • adjective lying in or toward the east

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English estern, from Old English ēasterne; see aus- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English esterne, from Old English ēasterne ("eastern"), from Proto-Germanic *austrōnjaz (“eastern”), from Proto-Indo-European *austero- (“eastern”), from Proto-Indo-European *aus- (“to shine”). Cognate with Old Saxon and Old High German ōstrōni ("eastern"), Old Norse austrœnn ("eastern"). More at east.

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word eastern.

Examples

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • In UK place names eastern sometimes gets changed to Aston (east town). Steeple Aston (Oxfordshire), many other *** Astons and 37 Aston ***s (eg, Aston Clinton, Buckinghamshire) are listed in the 2012 AA Greater Britain and Ireland Road Atlas.

    April 3, 2012