reorient

verb

re·​ori·​ent (ˌ)rē-ˈȯr-ē-ˌent 

reoriented; reorienting

transitive verb

: to orient (someone or something) again or differently: such as

a

: to change the orientation or direction of (something or someone)

reorient the antenna

reoriented herself so she was facing north

b

: to reacquaint (someone, especially oneself) with a situation, environment, etc.

woke up and reoriented myself to my surroundings

… returning servicewomen and men struggling to reorient themselves to civilian life.

—Molly Callahan

c

: to change the goal or emphasis of (something or someone)

… I stumbled into motherhood and was bewildered at … the volte-face required to reorient myself, my values and my way of life …

—Madeleine Bunting

… lacks nearly every resource necessary to reorient its archaic industrial economy …

—David Remnick

The long-term potential of vast databases of genomic data to … reorient the debate on medical priorities …

—Larry Downes and Paul Nunes

also : to direct (something) toward the interests of a different group

… reorienting its policy priorities to the working class.

—Franklin Foer

reorientation

(ˌ)rē-ˌȯr-ē-ən-ˈtā-shən 

-ˌen-

noun

plural reorientations

Many soldiers also find blogging a useful way to help deal with reorientation to civilian life …

—Brad Knickerbocker

Examples of reorient in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Left-leaning pressure from the government should be withdrawn, and, ideally, the means of exercising it should be dismantled rather than just temporarily reoriented. —The Editors, National Review, 7 Apr. 2025

So what the president is going to do is reorient this country towards the American worker and start producing things. —Newsweek Staff, MSNBC Newsweek, 4 Apr. 2025

Newsom, finishing his final term, quickly reoriented his rhetoric to focus more on economic issues after the election, and Democrats leading the California Legislature declared that affordability is their focus during the two-year legislative session. —Grant Stringer, Mercury News, 2 Apr. 2025

Trump’s agenda seems more to be about reorienting political power in Washington than putting the government on a sustainable fiscal path. —Jay Cost, The Washington Examiner, 28 Mar. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1877, in the meaning defined above