avant-garde

• avantgarde

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

• (UK) IPA^(key): /æˈvɑ̃t.ɡɑːd/, /æˈvɑ̃.ɡɑːd/, /ˌæ.vɑ̃ˈɡɑːd/, /ˈæ.vn̩t.ɡɑːd/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˌɑˌvɑntˈɡɑɹd/, /əˌvɑntˈɡɑɹd/, /ˌæ.vɑntˈɡɑɹd/, /ˌɑˌvæntˈɡɑɹd/, /əˌvæntˈɡɑɹd/, /ˌɑˌvɑ̃ˈɡɑɹd/, /ˌæˌvɑ̃ˈɡɑɹd/

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

avant-garde (plural avant-gardes)

1. (obsolete) The vanguard of an army or other force.

   Antonym: arrière-garde

2. Any group of people who invent or promote new techniques or concepts, especially in the arts.

   Antonym: arrière-garde

avant-garde (comparative more avant-garde, superlative most avant-garde)

1. Innovative and pioneering, especially when extremely or obviously so.

   Synonyms: underground; see also Thesaurus:innovation

   It was a very avant-garde production.

   • 2014 November 24, James Dobson, Modesty and Self-Esteem‎^[1], archived from the original on 24 March 2025:

     I fear she will pay a heavy price for the avant garde ideas she has been sold.

   • 2025 June 3, Mark O’Connell, “‘The Mozart of the attention economy’: why MrBeast is the world’s biggest YouTube star”, in The Guardian‎^[2], archived from the original on 7 June 2025:

     There’s a moment, for instance, in the competition show Beast Games that struck me as something close to avant garde. Donaldson lays out a million dollars in cash in a big pile, and instructs each of the 10 remaining contestants to come out of their little houses one by one, and to choose how much money they want to take from the pile.

• leading edge

Unadapted borrowing from French avant-garde.

• IPA^(key): /ˈɑʋɑntˌɡɑrde/, [ˈɑ̝ʋɑ̝n̪t̪ˌɡɑ̝rde̞]
• IPA^(key): /ˈɑʋɑn(t)ˌɡɑːr(d)/, [ˈɑ̝ʋɑ̝n(t̪)ˌɡɑ̝ːr(d)]
• Rhymes: -ɑrde
• Syllabification^(key): a‧vant‧gar‧de
• Hyphenation^(key): avant‧garde

avant-garde

1. synonym of avantgardismi

Inherited from Old French avantgarde. By surface analysis, avant (“before, in front of”) +‎ garde (“guard”).

• IPA^(key): /a.vɑ̃.ɡaʁd/

• Audio (France (Vosges)):

  (file)

avant-garde f (plural avant-gardes)

1. (military) vanguard [since mid-12th c.]

   Antonym: arrière-garde

   • 1879, Alfred Barbou, Les Trois Républiques françaises : Histoire populaire de la République en France [The Three French Republics: People's history of the Republic in France], A. Duquesne:

     Le 11 décembre, les avant-gardes ennemies étaient signalées aux environs de Château-Thierry.

     On December 11, the enemy vanguard was reported in the vicinity of Château-Thierry.

2. (figuratively) avant-garde, firing line [since mid-16th c.]
3. (Marxism) vanguard, the most politicized and conscious part of the proletariat.
   • 1917, Vladimir Lenin, “Chapter II, part 1”, in L’État et la Révolution‎^[3]:

     En éduquant le parti ouvrier, le marxisme éduque une avant-garde du prolétariat capable de prendre le pouvoir et de mener le peuple tout entier au socialisme, de diriger et d'organiser un régime nouveau, d'être l'éducateur, le guide et le chef de tous les travailleurs et exploités pour l'organisation de leur vie sociale, sans la bourgeoisie et contre la bourgeoisie. Au contraire, l'opportunisme régnant éduque, dans le parti ouvrier, des représentants des travailleurs les mieux rétribués qui se détachent de la masse : ils "s'accommodent" assez bien du régime capitaliste et vendent pour un plat de lentilles leur droit d'aînesse, c'est-à-dire qu'ils abdiquent leur rôle de chefs révolutionnaires du peuple dans la lutte contre la bourgeoisie.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

• “avant-garde”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Unadapted borrowing from French avant-garde.

avant-garde

1. avant-garde

   Synonyms: garda depan, pelopor, perintis

• “avant-garde”, in Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia [Great Dictionary of the Indonesian Language] (in Indonesian), Jakarta: Agency for Language Development and Cultivation – Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology of the Republic of Indonesia, 2016

avant-garde f (plural avant-gardes)

1. (military) vanguard

Unadapted borrowing from French avant-garde.

• Hyphenation: a‧vant-gar‧de

avant-garde m (plural avant-gardes)

1. avant-garde

avant-garde m or f (plural avant-gardes)

1. avant-garde