advanced
Americanadjective
-
placed ahead or forward.
with one foot advanced.
-
ahead or far or further along in progress, complexity, knowledge, skill, etc..
an advanced class in Spanish;
to take a course in advanced mathematics;
Our plans are too advanced to make the change now.
-
pertaining to or embodying ideas, practices, attitudes, etc., taken as being more enlightened or liberal than the standardized, established, or traditional.
advanced theories of child care;
the more advanced members of the artistic community.
-
far along in time.
the advanced age of most senators.
adjective
-
being ahead in development, knowledge, progress, etc
advanced studies
-
having reached a comparatively late stage
a man of advanced age
-
ahead of the times
advanced views on religion
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of advanced
First recorded in 1425–75; late Middle English; advance + -ed 2
Explanation
Use the adjective advanced to describe something that's ahead, especially in terms of growth or development. Your plans to build the world's best tree house are at an advanced stage if you're nearly ready to add a roof and invite your friends to visit. Things are advanced when they happen early or are ahead of the curve or above average. Your advanced reading ability in elementary school might have had your teachers scrambling to keep you interested, and if a scientist's cancer vaccine is at an advanced stage, it's nearly ready to be tested on people. Advanced comes from the verb advance, which comes from the Old French avancier, "move forward," from a Late Latin root word, abante, "from before."
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Eight bodies have been found in a state of "advanced deterioration" in the mortuary of an NHS trust, after hospitals ran out of freezer space.
From BBC • Jun. 25, 2026
By squeezing more transistors into tighter spaces, these advanced nodes boost processing speeds while cutting down on power consumption.
From Barron's • Jun. 25, 2026
The ombudsman found that the IFC violated its own policies on environmental and social protection when it advanced more than $400 million in loans to six Cambodian microfinance lenders.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 25, 2026
In 2017, the actress revealed that her cancer was in remission—however, just two years later it returned, with Doherty announcing that the disease had advanced to Stage 4.
From MarketWatch • Jun. 25, 2026
The old woman advanced through the field, hands up and strumming the threads of magic in the air.
From Anya and the Dragon by Sofiya Pasternack
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
