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

Cleveland is one of the cities that stands to lose the most as President Donald Trump and Elon Musk reorient the federal government and its spending priorities, the Washington Post reports. —Sam Allard, Axios, 4 Mar. 2025

Instead, with the transactional nature of President Trump, American foreign policy has been reoriented to one that downplays alliances and is open for business with any country -- depending on what's in it for the United States in the short run. —Domenico Montanaro, NPR, 28 Feb. 2025

Stargate, backed by industry leaders such as Masayoshi Son of SoftBank and Larry Ellison of Oracle, is intended to attract investment into domestic artificial intelligence infrastructure and reorient American strategic priorities by expanding modern data center capabilities. —Vlad Panin, Forbes, 25 Feb. 2025

Recording stops and starts without a hitch; the joystick movements instantly spin the motors; the rear trigger reorients the phone; and the zoom dial zooms the camera view when rotated. —PCMAG, 18 Feb. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1877, in the meaning defined above