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.

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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

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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

“How do we make fun of it in an avant-garde, punk, radical way? How do we poke holes at it?”

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 1, 2026

There are many extraordinary memoirs of the European avant-garde, but Hemingway brings a unique poetry to his account of the golden years between the wars.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 31, 2026

"Throughout an extraordinary lifetime devoted entirely to artistic creation, Kusama pursued an internationally acclaimed career as a pioneering avant-garde artist whose creative practice encompassed visual art, performance, fiction, and poetry," it said.

From BBC ● Aug. 27, 2026

After studying art in Japan, Kusama moved to the United States in the late 1950s, and -- encouraged and helped by Georgia O'Keeffe -- quickly made a splash in New York's avant-garde scene.

From Barron's ● Aug. 27, 2026

Nor do I know whether accepting the lesson has placed me in the rear or in the avant-garde.

From "Invisible Man" by Ralph Ellison

The troupe’s co-founders, Kelly Copper and Pavol Liska, are serious artists whose shrewd approach and mischievous creative drive combine elements of European and American avant-gardes.

From New York Times ● Oct. 27, 2022

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

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

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

Mott thinks that punk has been misrepresented since, both by rock historians who have over-intellectualised its meaning and context, and by curators who over-emphasise its artistic links to previous avant-gardes.

From The Guardian ● Aug. 28, 2010

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