Sadly lamenting the orientation (9)
I believe the answer is:
alignment
'the orientation' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'sadly lamenting' is the wordplay.
'sadly' indicates anagramming the letters.
'lamenting' is an anagram of 'ALIGNMENT'.
(Other definitions for alignment that I've seen before include "Alliance" , "Political side taken" , "union" , "co-operation" , "course" .)