avoid

American  

[uh-void] / əˈvɔɪd /

verb (used with object)

• avoids,
  present (3rd person singular)
• avoided,
  past participle,  past
• avoiding
  present participle

1. to keep away from; keep clear of; shun.

   to avoid a person;

   to avoid taxes;

   to avoid danger.

   Synonyms:

   dodge, elude, evade

   Antonyms:

   encounter, face, confront

2. to prevent from happening.

   to avoid falling.

3. Law. to make void or of no effect; invalidate.

4. Obsolete. to empty; eject or expel.

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avoid British  

/ əˈvɔɪd /

verb

1. to keep out of the way of

2. to refrain from doing

3. to prevent from happening

   to avoid damage to machinery

4. law to make (a plea, contract, etc) void; invalidate; quash

5. obsolete to expel

6. obsolete to depart from

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Synonym Usage

Avoid, escape mean to come through a potentially harmful or unpleasant experience, without suffering serious consequences. To avoid is to succeed in keeping away from something dangerous or undesirable: to avoid meeting an enemy. Escape suggests encountering peril but coming through it safely: to escape drowning.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• avoider
  noun
• nonavoidableness
  noun
• avoidable
  adjective
• nonavoidable
  adjective
• unavoiding
  adjective
• avoidably
  adverb
• nonavoidably
  adverb

Inflected Forms

Participles

• avoiding
  present
• avoided
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• avoid
  simple
• avoids
  simple
• have avoided
  perfect
• has avoided
  perfect
• am avoiding
  progressive
• are avoiding
  progressive
• is avoiding
  progressive
• have been avoiding
  perfect progressive
• has been avoiding
  perfect progressive

Past

• avoided
  simple
• had avoided
  perfect
• was avoiding
  progressive
• were avoiding
  progressive
• had been avoiding
  perfect progressive

Future

• will avoid
  simple
• will have avoided
  perfect
• will be avoiding
  progressive
• will have been avoiding
  perfect progressive

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Etymology

Origin of avoid

First recorded in 1250–1300; Middle English avoiden, from Anglo-French avoider, equivalent to a- ⁴ ( def. ) + void ( def. )

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Explanation

If you avoid drinking coffee right before bed because it tends to keep you awake and makes you jittery, that means that you stay away from coffee at night. The verb avoid means to stop yourself from doing something or to keep something from happening. You might avoid the old lady next door who smells funny and always wants to pinch your cheek, or you could avoid a certain dangerous neighborhood in your city by taking a different route when you're walking home. It's easy to get avoid confused with a similar word, evade, which means "to avoid in a particularly tricky or sneaky way."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

avoid avoids avoided avoiding

“We avoid situations where our actions might create a conflict—actual or potential—between our personal gain and our obligations to Nvidia,” the company says on its website.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 11, 2026

Still, the Fed will want to avoid overreacting to one economic data point that’s backward-looking.

From MarketWatch ● Nov. 10, 2026

European members of the G7 had pressed Rubio at the meeting of foreign ministers of the group in Paris to avoid any new escalation against Iran.

From Barron's ● Nov. 10, 2026

Prosecutors previously told the court they could be ready for trial by October 2027 but were willing to move that date back to January 2028 to avoid the holiday period.

From BBC ● Nov. 9, 2026

“I have saved the lives of many people, and not one is my friend. If anything, many of them seemed keen to avoid me later.”

From "Impossible Creatures" by Katherine Rundell

But she added it was important that the government's deal is implemented in a way that "avoids unintended consequences for established product descriptions which consumers clearly understand as referring to a flavour".

From BBC ● Nov. 6, 2026

Mr. Gordon rightly notes that “restarting the refinery alone wouldn’t resolve the territory’s financial crisis,” but he avoids a discussion of violence in the U.S.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 5, 2026

"By replacing electricity that would otherwise come from fossil fuel-fired power plants, this output avoids 185,936 tonnes of carbon emissions each year," operator Sanko Enerji says.

From Barron's ● Nov. 5, 2026

This avoids the possibility of one person feeling overextended while the other person becomes resentful about compromising their lifestyle.

From MarketWatch ● Nov. 3, 2026

Ma avoids looking at him as he approaches her.

From "First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers" by Loung Ung

But it’s also because the AI trade is facing some stiff headwinds that heretofore it had largely avoided.

From MarketWatch ● Nov. 10, 2026

They have avoided committing to specific plans throughout the process to maintain optionality, some of the people familiar with the matter said.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 5, 2026

But he studiously avoided his own, an absence that disappointed many and fueled ongoing speculation about why.

From Barron's ● Nov. 4, 2026

A train derailment which resulted in the deaths of three men could have been avoided if a drain had been built correctly, a sheriff has concluded.

From BBC ● Nov. 4, 2026

A well-dressed crowd had begun to gather in front of the Bolshoi Kamenny, but she avoided the main entrance and instead made her way to the alley that ran alongside the building.

From "The Long-Lost Home" by Maryrose Wood

But avoiding the issue will not make it go away.

From MarketWatch ● Nov. 9, 2026

He described Mathewson's system of avoiding parents bumping into each other at the same time as being like a "military operation".

From BBC ● Nov. 6, 2026

One of the most intriguing aspects of the discovery is the possibility that BRP could provide weight loss benefits while avoiding some unwanted effects associated with semaglutide and similar medications.

From Science Daily ● Nov. 4, 2026

And they’ve done it by avoiding college football’s priciest free agents almost entirely.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 2, 2026

Fluent in Spanish, Portuguese, and French, he had a knack for making friends wherever he went—as well as narrowly avoiding danger and death.

From "Death on the River of Doubt" by Samantha Seiple

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Related Words

• avert
• bypass
• dodge
• escape
• evade
• fend off
• shun
• sidestep

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