Many geologists and scholars in mineral deposits have paid attention to the west margin of the Ordos basin for a long time because of its special tectonic location, complex structure features, active neotectonic movement and favorable mineral occurrence conditions. Different discussions and researches have been done from many aspects on the regional geological structural characteristics and attributes of the study area and have proposed various views. In recent years, a few researchers have been assured that the Mesozoic Ordos basin is a foreland basin.The geodynamic environment in which foreland basin is developed is rather limited both temporally and spatially in the geological history. The west Ordos basin is located at the conjunction of several geotectonic parts with various structure features in different places and complicate evolution processes. Through comprehensive researches on regional background, basin-range relationship, prototype basin geomorphology, sedimentary response, structural characteristics, evolution process, time of development and later reformation based on exploration data up to date and testing results, it is concluded in the paper that the west Ordos basin in the Mesozoic was not a foreland basin on the whole, but one part of the basin in the huge residual and continuous craton. Only in a finite period and a local area (belt) in or after the late age of the basin development since the Late Jurassic has the west Ordos basin had combination section features similar to the structures of foreland basins.