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orient, orientate, disorient

The verbs orient and orientate are both acceptable, with orient being more common in North America.

  • Once the tourists got oriented in downtown Vancouver, they set out in the direction of Granville Island.

The antonym for both verbs is disorient; disorientate is non–standard English.

  • The store manager disorients her staff by constantly rearranging the displays.
  • Felix was so disoriented by the bad news that he left work early.