as in progressive
being or employing the latest concepts, styles, or techniques
a very avant-garde artist whose works wouldn't even be considered art by many traditionalists
Synonyms & Similar Words
Relevance
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
as in vanguard
the innovators of new concepts, styles, and techniques especially in the arts
to the theater world's avant-garde, the melodrama seemed like a very old-fashioned play whose time had come and gone
Synonyms & Similar Words
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Examples Sentences
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to
show current usage.
Read More
Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors.
Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of avant-garde
Jon Burlingame, Variety, 12 Mar. 2023
The nude, floor-length frock hinted at old Hollywood, perhaps a nod to mom Janet Leigh, but with the avant-garde touch of exterior boning in the corset.
—Christopher Muther, BostonGlobe.com, 12 Mar. 2023
Paige Reddinger, Robb Report, 2 Nov. 2024
While there are a few traditional names on these lists, like Luke, Natasha, and Jordan, most of these names are a bit more avant-garde.
—Christin Perry, Parents, 25 Oct. 2024
See all Example Sentences for avant-garde 
Adjective
Active in avant-garde music on the European music scene, Bertelmann frequently employs prepared piano and electronics.
—Jon Burlingame, Variety, 12 Mar. 2023
The nude, floor-length frock hinted at old Hollywood, perhaps a nod to mom Janet Leigh, but with the avant-garde touch of exterior boning in the corset.
—Christopher Muther, BostonGlobe.com, 12 Mar. 2023
Noun
In August of this year, the Parisian house announced a surprise investment in avant-garde darling MB&F.
—Paige Reddinger, Robb Report, 2 Nov. 2024
While there are a few traditional names on these lists, like Luke, Natasha, and Jordan, most of these names are a bit more avant-garde.
—Christin Perry, Parents, 25 Oct. 2024
See all Example Sentences for avant-garde
Recent Examples of Synonyms for avant-garde
Adjective
-
The gap in votes cast by the mayor’s critics and her supporters could be seen as a kind of backlash to progressive politics in one of California’s most diverse cities.Shomik Mukherjee, The Mercury News, 9 Nov. 2024
-
At least this one tilts a bit more progressive: The Recording Academy’s yearslong project to expand and diversify its membership seems to be paying off, with a younger and especially more women-heavy slate this year (just don’t look at the rock categories).Justin Curto, Vulture, 8 Nov. 2024
Noun
-
Since Trump fought the 2020 results in Georgia, the state has turned into a kind of vanguard for the national movement to contest elections.Jonathan Blitzer, The New Yorker, 2 Nov. 2024
-
The country is still run by an insular Leninist vanguard that have lived through a traumatic and intimate lesson in the brittleness of their own power.Nick Frisch, Foreign Affairs, 17 May 2016
Adjective
-
Murdoch noted that Tubi’s appeal for advertisers lies not just in its advanced targeting capabilities – compared to traditional TV — but also in its reach to hard-to-access audiences.Bruce Gil, Quartz, 15 Nov. 2024
-
Pramanik is also the Chief Investigator on a project developing an advanced grease interceptor that restaurants can use to remove small FOG particles more effectively.Laura Baisas, Popular Science, 13 Nov. 2024
Noun
-
Paul Morrissey, a fixture of New York’s cinema scene whose collaborations with Andy Warhol in the ’60s and ’70s reinvented the American underground and made local legends of amateur actors and transgender performers, died Monday at a hospital in Manhattan.J. Kim Murphy, Variety, 28 Oct. 2024
-
To ensure that shooting the CO2 underground doesn’t inadvertently contaminate drinking water sources, the EPA has to issue permits for the new wells under the Safe Drinking Water Act Underground Injection Control program.Justine Calma, The Verge, 5 Sep. 2024
Adjective
-
This unconventional column is based on value pluralism — the idea that each of us has multiple values that are equally valid but that often conflict with each other.Sigal Samuel, Vox, 18 Nov. 2024
-
Reisman was known to be unconventional in the sport, yet won two U.S. Men’s Singles Championships in 1958 and 1960 and more than 20 international and national titles.Andreas Wiseman, Deadline, 5 Nov. 2024
Adjective
-
By the 1980s Black women frequenting Vietnamese nail shops played an active role in cultivating that avant garde culture and made space for two seemingly different cultures to bond through beauty and art.Essence, Essence, 20 Sep. 2024
-
The 2025 appearance of Anohni and the Johnson is a full circle moment for the band, who helped launch the avant festival in 2009.Angie Martoccio, Rolling Stone, 10 Sep. 2024
Adjective
-
The movie’s true set pieces are the professorial villain’s ostentatious monologues using fast food, musical plagiarism, and Monopoly as metaphors to point out how modern religions are just conspicuous iterations of what’s come before.Nicholas Quah, Vulture, 8 Nov. 2024
-
What was once a niche for ultra-cheap laptops for students has expanded radically as Chrome OS becomes more powerful and versatile, and modern Chromebooks are faster and more capable than ever before while still being hundreds of dollars cheaper than the competition.K. Thor Jensen, PCMAG, 7 Nov. 2024
Adjective
-
This contemporary dispossession of Indigenous people fits into the long and violent history in which legal and extralegal measures are taken by those in power to forcibly remove Indigenous inhabitants from their land.Ryleigh Nucilli, Outside Online, 14 Nov. 2024
-
The tradition is centuries old and unique to the U.K., with some towns creating huge elaborate effigies of Guy Fawkes to be burned — sometimes instead building models of contemporary figures, including former prime ministers Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak.Patrick Smith, NBC News, 14 Nov. 2024
Thesaurus Entries Near avant-garde
Cite this Entry
“Avant-garde.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/avant-garde. Accessed 24 Nov. 2024.
Copy CitationLove words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
Share