east-west direction
- noun
:
dirección este-oeste
- The city's layout is designed with roads that primarily extend in an east-west direction, facilitating easier navigation.
Examples
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The hiking trail runs in an east-west direction, making it ideal for watching the sunrise and sunset.
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As caravans journeyed along the Santa Fe Trail, entrepreneurs helped to reorient a north-south flow of commerce into an east-west direction.
Academic text (1997) -
Interstate Highway 15 crosses through Salt Lake City in a north-south direction, and scenic Interstate Highway 80 parallels Great Salt Lake's south shore and crosses through the city in an east-west direction.
Academic text (2005) -
During the construction, workers ensured that the foundation was oriented in an east-west direction to maximize natural light.
Surface Forms
Morphology
east-west + direction
The meaning is directly and transparently derived from combining the cardinal orientation 'east-west' (between east and west) with 'direction' (the line or heading); a B1 learner who knows the constituent words can infer it refers to a bearing running east to west or vice versa. This compositional pattern is literal and cross-linguistically common, so no prior exposure is required.
Etymology
East-west direction names the line that runs from east to west on a map, like a road that goes straight across a region. That's why it means 'a direction that goes from east to west'.
