avant-garde
UK/æˈvɑ̃t.ɡɑːd/US/ˌɑˌvɑntˈɡɑɹd/
avant-garde noun: the vanguard of an army or other force.
Noun
avant-garde (plural avant-gardes)
- The vanguard of an army or other force.
- Antonyms:
- arrière-garde
- Any group of people who invent or promote new techniques or concepts, especially in the arts.
- Antonyms:
- arrière-garde
Adjective
avant-garde (comparative more avant-garde, superlative most avant-garde)
- Innovative and pioneering, especially when extremely or obviously so.
- It was a very avant-garde production.
- While the work of the contemporary artists in the show is avant-garde, it does not overwhelm the colorful faience made by the Faucon family, seven generations of ceramicists who operated a factory in Apt, a town in the Luberon Valley, from 1890 until 2002.2009 January 30, Wendy Moonan, “An Old-School Collector With Ideas on Beauty”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 26 Nov 2022
- Synonyms:
- underground
avant-garde meaning in Bengali, Malayalam, Malay and Indonesian
avant-garde in Bengali
- group of people promoting new concepts
- অগ্রপথিক ogropothik
avant-garde in Malayalam
- original, innovative, innovatory
- മൗലികതയുള്ള, അത്യാധുനികമായ, പുതിയതും അസാധാരണവുമായ ആശയങ്ങളായ, പുതുമയുള്ള, പുതുവഴി സൃഷ്ടിക്കുന്ന, കലയിൽ പുതുവഴി സൃഷ്ടിക്കുന്ന
avant-garde in Malay
- innovative and pioneering
- avant-garde
avant-garde in Indonesian
- (obsolete) the vanguard of an army or other force
- garda depan, barisan depan
- group of people promoting new concepts
- kaum perintis, garda depan
- innovative and pioneering
- terdepan, terkemuka
More languagesFewer languages
- avant-garde in Persian
- آوانگارد âvângârd
- avant-garde in Thai
- แนวหน้า nɛɛo-nâa
Synonyms of avant-garde
Antonyms
Forms of avant-garde
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | avant-gardes |
| alternative form | avantgarde |
| Adjective | |
| comparative | more avant-garde |
| superlative | most avant-garde |
Origin of avant-garde
From Middle English advaunte-garde, avauntgard, from Old French avangarde, avant-garde, avantgarde, from avant (“before; in front”) + garde (“guard”). Doublet of vanguard and vaward
Words formed from avant-garde
Questions about avant-garde
- What does avant-garde mean?
- Avant-garde means the vanguard of an army or other force.
- What is avant-garde in Bengali?
- Avant-garde in Bengali is অগ্রপথিক (ogropothik). See Avant-garde meaning in Bengali.
- What part of speech is avant-garde?
- Avant-garde can be a noun or an adjective.
- How do you pronounce avant-garde?
- Avant-garde is pronounced /æˈvɑ̃t.ɡɑːd/ (UK).
- What is the plural of avant-garde?
- The plural of avant-garde is avant-gardes.
Words near avant-garde in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: avant-garde (page history and authors); avant-garde (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-avant-garde.ogg.
Cite this entry: “avant-garde.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/avant-garde. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.