Avant-garde

//ˌɑˌvɑntˈɡɑɹd// adj, noun

adj, noun ·Moderate ·High school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The vanguard of an army or other force. obsolete
  2. 2
    any creative group active in the innovation and application of new concepts and techniques in a given field (especially in the arts) wordnet
  3. 3
    Any group of people who invent or promote new techniques or concepts, especially in the arts.
Adjective
  1. 1
    Innovative and pioneering, especially when extremely or obviously so.

    "It was a very avant-garde production."

Adjective
  1. 1
    radically new or original wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
vanguarda la modeadvance guardadvancedahead of its timeancestor

Example

More examples

"Zaila Avant-garde, 14, jumped and twirled with joy upon being declared the winner after nailing the spelling of “murraya,” a genus of tropical Asiatic and Australian citrus trees."

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from French avant-garde (“vanguard”). Doublet of vanguard and vaward.

Related phrases

avant-danceavant-garageavant-gardismavant-gardistavant-metalavant-pop

More for "avant-garde"

SynonymsSentencesPronunciationTranslate

Next best steps

Find stronger synonymsSee usage examplesCheck pronunciationBrowse writing guides

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.