- A2 the direction that you face
- A2 the part of an area
- The East (with a capital letter) B2 the countries of Asia
In iWeb corpus, ‘east’ is tagged mostly as the noun of direction. It is also often in names. However the part of speech really is often as an adjective or an adverb.
1 EAST (ND1) 1401537 (direction)
2 EAST (NP1) 113313 (name)
If we are looking to see how often there is an article we could easily do a search for:
* _ND1
1 THE NORTH 529075
2 THE SOUTH 479212
3 THE WEST 458616
4 THE EAST 337507
At dawn, look to the east.
5 IN NORTH 260602
6 MIDDLE EAST 181520
Both saw combat in the Middle East.
7 IN SOUTH 141799
8 , NORTH 135073
9 OF NORTH 134044
10 AND SOUTH 108543
11 , SOUTH 94739
12 OF SOUTH 76653
13 AND NORTH 71232
14 IN WEST 69452
15 AND WEST 66247
16 THE NORTHEAST 60471
17 THE NORTHWEST 54864
18 IN EAST 54721
19 , WEST 52952
20 THE SOUTHWEST 51171
21 NORTH 50796
22 THE SOUTHEAST 44881
23 SOUTH EAST 44635
24 OF WEST 42268
25 , EAST 41039
26 TO NORTH 39718
27 SOUTH WEST 37167
28 TO SOUTH 37164
29 AND EAST 36719
30 SOUTH 36524
31 NORTH WEST 36391
32 NORTH EAST 35400
33 FROM NORTH 35332
34 PACIFIC NORTHWEST 32639
35 WEST 30571
36 OF EAST 29474
37 JUST NORTH 29058
38 MILES NORTH 26616
39 JUST SOUTH 25795
40 FROM SOUTH 24770
41 MILES SOUTH 24266
42 IN SOUTHEAST 23834
43 FAR EAST 22980
44 TO WEST 21782
45 . NORTH 20932
46 AT NORTH 20855
47 EAST 19771
48 BIG EAST 19432
49 ACROSS NORTH 19413
50 KANYE WEST 19280
51 FAR NORTH 18416
52 WILD WEST 17774
53 A NORTH 17366
54 ( NORTH 17242
55 FROM WEST 16629
56 ‘S NORTH 16374
57 TO EAST 15705
58 MILES WEST 15694
59 . SOUTH 15520
60 MILES EAST 15114
61 UP NORTH 15034
62 FROM EAST 15014
63 FOR NORTH 14239
64 AT SOUTH 13939
65 AT WEST 13861
66 ‘S SOUTH 13600
67 ( SOUTH 13401
68 ‘S WEST 13260
69 . WEST 12919
70 NORTH 12904
71 IN SOUTHWEST 12657
72 IN NORTHEAST 12640
73 A SOUTH 12384
74 JUST WEST 12309
75 ( WEST 11987
76 IN NORTHWEST 11770
77 JUST EAST 11493
78 OUT WEST 11007
79 AT EAST 10987
80 ‘S EAST 10789
81 AND SOUTHEAST 10769
82 FURTHER SOUTH 10595
83 A WEST 10366
84 OR SOUTH 10333
85 HEAD NORTH 10304
86 FURTHER NORTH 10237
87 SOUTH 10021
88 OF SOUTHEAST 9774
89 THROUGHOUT NORTH 9654
90 ( EAST 9622
91 HEAD SOUTH 9603
92 DOWN SOUTH 9532
93 THE NORTH-EAST 9305
94 FAR SOUTH 8975
95 ON NORTH 8908
96 THE SE 8905
97 FOR SOUTH 8829
98 ON SOUTH 8756
99 NEAR EAST 8715
100 ON WEST 8573