avow

American  

[uh-vou] / əˈvaʊ /

verb (used with object)

• avows,
  present (3rd person singular)
• avowed,
  past participle,  past
• avowing
  present participle

1. to declare frankly or openly; assert; confess; admit.

   He avowed himself an opponent of all alliances.

   Synonyms:

   profess, own, declare, affirm, acknowledge

   Antonyms:

   repudiate, disavow, deny

---

avow British  

/ əˈvaʊd, əˈvaʊ, əˈvaʊɪdlɪ /

verb

1. to state or affirm

2. to admit openly

3. rare law to justify or maintain (some action taken)

---

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• avowal
  noun
• avower
  noun
• unavowableness
  noun
• reavow
  verb (used with object)
• avowable
  adjective
• avowed
  adjective
• unavowable
  adjective
• avowedly
  adverb
• unavowably
  adverb

Inflected Forms

Participles

• avowing
  present
• avowed
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• avow
  simple
• avows
  simple
• have avowed
  perfect
• has avowed
  perfect
• am avowing
  progressive
• are avowing
  progressive
• is avowing
  progressive
• have been avowing
  perfect progressive
• has been avowing
  perfect progressive

Past

• avowed
  simple
• had avowed
  perfect
• was avowing
  progressive
• were avowing
  progressive
• had been avowing
  perfect progressive

Future

• will avow
  simple
• will have avowed
  perfect
• will be avowing
  progressive
• will have been avowing
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of avow

First recorded in 1200–50; Middle English avowen, from Old French avoue(r), from Latin advocāre; see advocate

Explanation

When you avow something, you say it openly for the whole world to hear. If you're a witness in a trial, you'll be asked to take an oath in which you'll avow that you'll tell the truth. A simple way to remember the meaning of avow is that it sounds and looks a whole lot like "a vow," to which it's closely related. At the end of almost every wedding, the couple takes their vows, in which they avow their commitment to each other. To take a vow is to avow the things that you say in that vow. Be sure that you mean what you say when you avow something, because people will hold you to it. And don't mutter or mumble. That's no way to avow something.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

avow avows avowed avowing

U.S. secretary of state John Quincy Adams, however, considered it “more candid as well as more dignified” for the new country “to avow our principles explicitly” than to allow the British to take the lead.

From Textbooks ● Dec. 14, 2022

"Instead of trashing volunteerism as inherently elitist, why not avow and attest to its ongoing value as a vital part of necessary diversification and cultural change?"

From Fox News ● Oct. 17, 2021

He seems able to avow that desire readily and frankly!

From Slate ● Jan. 28, 2021

When offered an easy way out — would he at least avow that he hated the Germans? — he declined the invitation and answered only that he loved the French.

From New York Times ● Jul. 21, 2020

“I avow, Serjeant, we shall commit ourselves wholly to philosophy without a grain of intelligence intermixed.”

From "The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume II: The Kingdom on the Waves" by M.T. Anderson

Nolan avows the not-uncommon belief that these innovations represent a death of cinema, that digital tools not only cheapen the product and the experience but threaten the very medium of film itself.

From Slate ● Aug. 31, 2020

The ability to turn back whether or not you’ve reached your destination “takes preparation over many passing years,” avows Guterson.

From Seattle Times ● Oct. 11, 2019

It avows an anti-elitist attentiveness to the industrially humdrum.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 13, 2019

In the most poignant number from his new album, the father-and-son-referencing “Just Call Me, Hank,” Williams avows, “I don’t care about the Hall of Fame.”

From The New Yorker ● Mar. 24, 2016

Kant avows that man has no right to affirm that there are out of him real causes, time, or space, or that he himself has a spiritual and free soul.

From Lectures on the true, the beautiful and the good by Victor Cousin

By the end, and by her own hand, she was reduced to being a joyless hater of holidays and avowed enemy of All Things Fun.

From Salon ● Aug. 13, 2026

Charli is an avowed film buff, whose fifth album was named after David Cronenberg's notorious body-horror film Crash.

From BBC ● Jul. 24, 2026

Few relationships have changed more for the president than that with Bezos, who has gone from an avowed enemy of the president to an energetic ally.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 3, 2026

The lightweight championship clash will top a bill of six fights set to take place on the US Flag Day holiday and the 80th birthday of President Donald Trump, who is an avowed UFC fan.

From Barron's ● Mar. 8, 2026

“Yes. I know beyond question that he has sworn his allegiance to Arawn. He is Arawn’s avowed champion. Once again, the power of Annuvin threatens Prydain.”

From "The Book of Three" by Lloyd Alexander

The thing I love about poetry is its uselessness, the way it is, with a few exceptions, superfluous to capital, difficult to commodify, gratuitous in its insistence on avowing that which has been marked valueless.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 23, 2023

Barron’s successor, Neeli Bendapudi, canceled the project in late October, avowing a commitment to equity and inclusion but saying it would be “more impactful” to enhance support for existing work on racial bias.

From Washington Post ● Jan. 5, 2023

One actor, while avowing his total support for the Fair Wage Onstage campaign, admitted that the conversation around it might be driving him out of the theatre.

From The Guardian ● Nov. 14, 2016

Mr Bickley dismisses that claim, avowing that he would prefer a more progressive tax system.

From Economist ● Oct. 2, 2014

Sir Sidney Waterlow, standing for a Scotch seat, was sharply catechised as to when he had last been inside a Unitarian Chapel, and only saved his seat by not too boldly avowing his opinions.

From Theological Essays by Charles Bradlaugh