adjective

avant garde

av-on-GARD

Avant garde (adjective) means Strikingly new and experimental, especially in art, music, fashion or film, and ahead of what most people are used to. Example: “The gallery has a reputation for avant garde video work.”

adjective

Strikingly new and experimental, especially in art, music, fashion or film, and ahead of what most people are used to.

"The gallery has a reputation for avant garde video work."

"Her collection was too avant garde for the high street."

noun

The artists, writers or thinkers whose work breaks with established forms and points the way for others.

"He spent the 1960s on the fringes of the literary avant garde."

"The avant garde of one generation becomes the syllabus of the next."

How to Use Avant garde

Learner’s notes

In plain EnglishArt or ideas that are far ahead of the mainstream.

When to use it

Usually written with a hyphen, avant-garde, and often kept in italics in older texts. It can be admiring or faintly mocking depending on tone.

Memory tip

Avant garde and vanguard are the same French phrase arriving in English twice, but vanguard now means simply the leading position, without the artistic overtones.

Trace the full origin ↓

Easily confused with

vanguard → modernist bohemian → arriere-garde

Common pairings

avant-garde art avant-garde cinema the literary avant-garde distinctly avant-garde

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The gallery has a reputation for _____ video work.

Etymology

From French avant-garde 'advance guard', the troops sent ahead of the main army, from avant 'before' and garde 'guard'.

Origin: French

Synonyms

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experimental innovative radical cutting-edge unorthodox vanguard innovators trailblazers

Antonyms

conventional traditional conservative establishment mainstream

Related Words

good company blue modern normal base standard organization

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the difference between avant garde and modern art?

Modern art names a broad historical period, roughly the 1860s to the 1970s, and includes work that was widely accepted in its day. Avant garde describes a stance rather than a period: art that deliberately breaks with prevailing conventions, which can happen in any era.

How do you pronounce avant garde?

Roughly av-on-GARD, keeping the French nasal in the first syllable and leaving the final e silent. English speakers commonly say a flatter av-ont-GARD, which is perfectly acceptable.

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