avant-garde

American  

[uh-vahnt-gahrd, uh-vant-, av-ahnt-, ah-vahnt-, a-vahn-gard] / əˌvɑntˈgɑrd, əˌvænt-, ˌæv ɑnt-, ˌɑ vɑnt-, a vɑ̃ˈgard /

noun

avant-gardes plural

1. the advance group in any field, especially in the visual, literary, or musical arts, whose works are characterized chiefly by unorthodox and experimental methods.

---

adjective

1. of or relating to the experimental treatment of artistic, musical, or literary material.

2. belonging to the avant-garde.

   an avant-garde composer.

3. unorthodox or daring; radical.

   To regain public trust in the news media, the organization took the avant-garde approach of including the public in the production of news.

avant-garde British  

/ avɑ̃ɡard, ˌævɒŋˈɡɑːd /

noun

1. those artists, writers, musicians, etc, whose techniques and ideas are markedly experimental or in advance of those generally accepted

---

adjective

1. of such artists, etc, their ideas, or techniques

2. radical; daring

Usage

What does avant-garde mean? From the French, avant-garde describes experimental or innovative art or design, or the group of people who make them and push the envelope in their field. It can also more generally refer to anything considered "unorthodox" or "radical."

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• avant-gardism
  noun
• avant-gardist
  noun

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• avant-gardes
  plural

Etymology

Origin of avant-garde

First recorded in 1475–85; in sense “vanguard”; from French: literally, “fore-guard;” see vanguard

Explanation

The term avant-garde refers to innovative or experimental concepts or works, or the group of people producing them. Pushing boundaries with his development of Cubism, Pablo Picasso was part of the early 20th-century art world’s avant-garde. In French, avant-garde means the “vanguard” or the “advance guard” — basically the people and ideas that are ahead of their time. Usually it refers to a movement in the arts, like Dadaism, or in politics, like anarchism. Avant-garde can also be used as an adjective to describe something that’s cutting-edge. You might have enjoyed that avant-garde dance piece in which the performers threw marshmallows at each other, even though it was confusing at times.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

avant-garde avant-gardes

Erich Mendelsohn, the young architect, was a member of Munich’s artistic avant-garde, while Erwin Finlay Freundlich, one of the first German physicists to endorse the theory of relativity, belonged to the scientific avant-garde.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 24, 2026

“Practice,” which had its premiere at Playwrights Horizons, is a more epic work that closely tracks the perverse power dynamics of an avant-garde theater troupe.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 8, 2026

Europe’s public considered the artist, a bourgeois son of a Normandy notary, to be the rear guard of the avant-garde.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 12, 2026

“Another Dimension” is his answer to the years of rejection, pain and incandescent ire, but transmuted into a vibrant, avant-garde, genre-defying gaping wound found within 11 tight tracks.

From Salon ● Jun. 5, 2026

The art establishment finds these artists too avant-garde in their use of light, a bright palette, visible brushstrokes, unusual composition, and strange angles.

From "Vincent and Theo: The Van Gogh Brothers" by Deborah Heiligman

Almost a third of the works here are by women, which, for a show of historical avant-gardes, counts as a lot.

From New York Times ● Dec. 17, 2020

She has been rightly noticed by other artistic avant-gardes, and has collaborated with electronic composers and been commissioned by choreographers.

From New York Times ● May 26, 2017

It took many years, and a model of art history that stopped seeing the past as a mere succession of avant-gardes, before Klossowski finally won attention in Europe as a visual artist.

From New York Times ● Dec. 3, 2015

In his mid-20s, Tavener symbolised what must have seemed like a visionary coming-together of the pop and classical musical avant-gardes.

From The Guardian ● Feb. 19, 2013

It was, as art historian Kristine Stiles has noted, multicultural and multiracial, with more women than most avant-gardes before it.

From The Guardian ● Jun. 18, 2012

Related Words

• advanced
• ahead of its time
• experimental
• groundbreaking
• innovative
• innovatory
• inventive
• modern
• new
• original
• pioneering
• progressive
• revolutionary
• state-of-the-art
• trailblazing
• ultramodern
• unorthodox