Word.ws English Dictionary

avoid like the plague

UK/əˈvɔɪd laɪk ðə ˈpleɪɡ/

avoid like the plague verb: to evade or shun, if at all possible.

Verb

avoid like the plague (third-person singular simple present avoids like the plague, present participle avoiding like the plague, simple past and past participle avoided like the plague)

  1. (simile) To evade or shun, if at all possible.
    • Cliché should be avoided like the plague.
    • I’m one of those people who avoids confrontations like the plague.

Forms of avoid like the plague

third-person singular presentavoids like the plague
present participleavoiding like the plague
past participleavoided like the plague
pastavoided like the plague

Origin of avoid like the plague

From the deadliness of the plague and the need to avoid it. Commonly attributed to similar phrases in Latin used by the priest and theologian Saint Jerome (c. 347–420) in his letters, for example: : His igitur quasi quibusdam pestibus exterminatis veniamus ad eos,[…] Avoiding these [the Remnuoth, a class of monks in Egypt] then as though they were the plague, […] : [N]egotiatorem clericum et ex inope divitem et ex ignobili gloriosum quasi quandem pestem fuge Avoid, as you would the plague, a clergyman who is also a man of business, one who has risen from poverty to wealth, from obscurity to a high position

Questions about avoid like the plague

What does avoid like the plague mean?
Avoid like the plague means to evade or shun, if at all possible.
What part of speech is avoid like the plague?
Avoid like the plague is a verb.
How do you pronounce avoid like the plague?
Avoid like the plague is pronounced /əˈvɔɪd laɪk ðə ˈpleɪɡ/ (UK).
What is the past tense of avoid like the plague?
The past tense of avoid like the plague is avoided like the plague.

Words near avoid like the plague in the dictionary

  1. Avogadro constant
  2. Avogadro's constant
  3. Avogadro's law
  4. Avogadro's number
  5. avoid
  6. avoid like the plague
  7. avoidability
  8. avoidable
  9. avoidableness
  10. avoidables
  11. avoidably

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: avoid like the plague (page history and authors). 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.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-avoid like the plague.ogg.

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