A gyrocompass is a type of non-magnetic compass which is based on a fast-spinning disc and the rotation of the Earth to find geographical direction automatically. A gyrocompass makes use of one of the seven fundamental ways to determine the heading of a vehicle. A gyroscope is an essential component of a gyrocompass, but they are different devices; a gyrocompass is built to use the effect of gyroscopic precession, which is a distinctive aspect of the general gyroscopic effect. Gyrocompasses, such as the fibre optic gyrocompass are widely used to provide a heading for navigation on ships. This is because they have two significant advantages over magnetic compasses:

• they find true north as determined by the axis of the Earth's rotation, which is different from, and navigationally more useful than, magnetic north, and
• they have a greater degree of accuracy because they are unaffected by ferromagnetic materials, such as in a ship's steel hull, which distort the magnetic field.

घूर्णाक्षस्थापी दिक्सूचक या घूर्णाक्ष दिक्सूचक (gyrocompass) एक ऐसा दिक्सूचक है जो चुम्बकीय सुई का उपयोग नहीं करता बल्कि एक तेज गति से घूमने वाली डिस्क तथा पृथ्वी की घूर्णन गति पर आधारित है। जलयानों के चालन में घूर्णाक्ष दिक्सूचकों का खूब उपयोग होता है क्योंकि चुम्बकीय दिक्सूचक की तुलना में इसके दो प्रमुख लाभ हैं-

• (१) ये वास्तविक उत्तर दिशा का ज्ञान कराते हैं
• (२) ये लौहचुम्बकीय पदार्थों की उपस्थिति से प्रभावित नहीं होते। चूंकि जलयान लोहे का बना होता है, इसलिये यह लाभ विशेष रूप से महत्व का है।