Definitions

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

  • adjective Situated in, toward, or facing the west.
  • adjective Coming from the west.
  • adjective Native to or growing in the west.
  • adjective Of, relating to, or characteristic of western regions or the West.
  • adjective Of, relating to, or descended from those Christian churches that use or formerly used Latin as their liturgical language.
  • noun A novel, film, television program, or other dramatic work including themes, characters, or settings characteristic of the American West, especially of the late 1800s.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Of or pertaining to the west, or the quarter or region of sunset; being or lying on or in the direction of the west; occidental: as, the western horizon; the western part or boundary of a country.
  • Tending or directed toward the west; extending or pursued westward: as, a western course; a western voyage.
  • Belonging to or characteristic of some locality in the west, or some region specifically called the West (in the latter case often capitalized): as, western people or dialects (as in England); a Western city or railroad, or Western enterprise (as in the United States); the Western Empire.
  • Declining in the west, as the setting sun; hence, figuratively, passing toward the end; waning.
  • Coming from the west: as, a western wind.
  • noun An inhabitant of a western region, or of the West or Occident; specifically, a member of a Western race as distinguished from the Eastern races.
  • noun A member of the Latin or Western Church.

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

  • adjective Of or pertaining to the west; situated in the west, or in the region nearly in the direction of west; being in that quarter where the sun sets.
  • adjective Moving toward the west; ; coming from the west.
  • adjective See Latin Church, under Latin.
  • adjective (Hist.) the western portion of the Roman empire, as divided, by the will of Theodosius the Great, between his sons Honorius and Arcadius, a. d. 395.

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

  • adjective Of, facing, situated in, or related to the west
  • adjective of a wind blowing from the west; westerly
  • adjective occidental
  • noun A film, or some other dramatic work, set in, the historic American West (west of the Mississippi river) typically focusing on a cowboys vs. Indians conflict (real or imaginary).

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

  • noun a film about life in the western United States during the period of exploration and development
  • adjective of or characteristic of regions of the United States west of the Mississippi River
  • noun a sandwich made from a western omelet
  • adjective of wind; from the west
  • adjective relating to or characteristic of the western parts of the world or the West as opposed to the eastern or oriental parts
  • adjective lying toward or situated in the west

Etymologies

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

[Middle English, from Old English westerne; see wes-pero- in Indo-European roots.]

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Examples

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