avant-

prefix

of or belonging to the avant-garde of a specified field

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Example Sentences

And, as the enigmatic front man to an avant garde indie rock group, he is droll, perceptive, and splendidly weird.

From The Daily Beast

How a small London design group seized the moment and brought avant-garde art to classic rock.

From The Daily Beast

From the refined attire at Lincoln Center to the avant-garde dress downtown, we spotted many of the big 2014 trends.

From The Daily Beast

She veers towards the avant-garde, using metal-powder deformed silicone piercings as textural embellishment and digital printers.

From The Daily Beast

Instead, you find your favorite objects displaced by a cacophony of contemporary works, often highly avant-garde and challenging.

From The Daily Beast

Ils firent mille tentatives et ceremonies avant que nous aborder.

From Project Gutenberg

Mais c'est là une mesure d'un intérêt défensif, qui ne fera pas faire un pas en avant.

From Project Gutenberg

Ils travaillaient dans le champ, voisin du bois, je suis all les voir tandis que vous marchiez en avant.

From Project Gutenberg

"Et longtemps depuis ne faisoient sermon qu'ilz Acab et Hisabel et leurs perscutions ne fussent mis par eux en avant," etc.

From Project Gutenberg

Weber Hastings acted as guide, or rather avant-courier, since all knew the route that was to be followed.

From Project Gutenberg

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Words That Use Avant-

What does avant- mean?

Avant- is a prefix meaning “before” or “forward.” It is very occasionally used in some technical terms.

Avant- comes from French avant, meaning “before.” Avant, in turn, derives from Latin ante, “before,” which is the source of the English combining form ante-.

In most cases, avant- is joined to other words with a hyphen, as in avant-courier.

Examples of avant-

The most common word that features the prefix avant- is avant-garde, “the advance group in any field whose works are characterized by unorthodox and experimental methods.”

The prefix avant- means “before,” while the -garde part of the word comes from French, “guard.” Avant-garde literally means “before guard” or, more clearly, “forward guard.” If this translation sounds familiar, that may be because avant-garde related to the term vanguard.

What are some words that use the prefix avant-?

What are some other forms that avant- may be commonly confused with?

Break it down!

The word courier means “messenger.” With this in mind, who was the avant-courier of the army, historically?

Avalon Peninsula avant-garde

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