Word.ws English Dictionary

taboo avoidance

taboo avoidance noun: the replacement of a word or phrase with another by way of euphemism to avoid a cultural taboo (e.g. because the older word has become vulgar, or due to the belief that mentioning a dangerous creature's name may cause that creature to appear).

Noun

taboo avoidance (countable and uncountable, plural taboo avoidances)

  1. The replacement of a word or phrase with another by way of euphemism to avoid a cultural taboo (e.g. because the older word has become vulgar, or due to the belief that mentioning a dangerous creature's name may cause that creature to appear).
    • It is believed that Slavic *medvědь (“bear”, literally “honey-eater”) replaced an earlier word because of taboo avoidance.

Forms of taboo avoidance

pluraltaboo avoidances

Questions about taboo avoidance

What does taboo avoidance mean?
Taboo avoidance means the replacement of a word or phrase with another by way of euphemism to avoid a cultural taboo (e.g. because the older word has become vulgar, or due to the belief that mentioning a dangerous creature's name may cause that creature to appear).
What part of speech is taboo avoidance?
Taboo avoidance is a noun.
What is the plural of taboo avoidance?
The plural of taboo avoidance is taboo avoidances.

Words near taboo avoidance in the dictionary

  1. tabontabon
  2. tabontabons
  3. tabonuco
  4. tabonucos
  5. taboo
  6. taboo avoidance
  7. taboo avoidances
  8. taboo deformation
  9. taboo deformations
  10. tabooed
  11. tabooer

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: taboo avoidance (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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Cite this entry: “taboo avoidance.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/taboo_avoidance. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.