avert
Americanverb (used with object)
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averts,
present (3rd person singular)
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averted,
past participle, past
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averting
present participle
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to turn away or aside.
to avert one's eyes.
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to ward off; prevent.
to avert evil;
to avert an accident.
verb
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to turn away or aside
to avert one's gaze
-
to ward off; prevent from occurring
to avert danger
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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avertsimple
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avertssimple
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have avertedperfect
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has avertedperfect
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am avertingprogressive
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are avertingprogressive
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is avertingprogressive
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have been avertingperfect progressive
-
has been avertingperfect progressive
Past
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avertedsimple
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had avertedperfect
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was avertingprogressive
-
were avertingprogressive
-
had been avertingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of avert
First recorded in 1400–50; late Middle English, from Middle French avertir, ultimately derived from Latin āvertere, equivalent to ā- a- 4 + vertere “to turn”
Explanation
To avert is to turn away or to prevent. You might avert your gaze or avert a disaster — either way, you are avoiding something. The verb avert comes from Latin roots that mean "to turn away from." Averting has that sense of deflecting, turning away, or preventing something (usually bad) from happening. You might put salt on an icy sidewalk to avert accidents, or you might avert a toddler's meltdown by supplying a lollipop.
Vocabulary lists containing avert
Of Mice and Men
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Essential Academic Vocabulary for Middle School Students, List 2
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"Of Mice and Men"
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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.
See Examples For:
To avert future calamities, the forest outside Bordeaux must be thinned and its fire breaks widened, said Arthur Guérin-Turcq, a Sorbonne University geographer whose family cultivates pines near Le Porge.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 30, 2026
Perhaps the U.S. and Canada will come to some agreement in the coming days and avert more economic upheaval.
From Salon ● Aug. 25, 2026
They also came after Israel bombed the disused Abu Duhur airbase in the country's northwest earlier in the week, claiming it wanted to avert Turkish troops deploying to the facility.
From Barron's ● Aug. 23, 2026
But it is Philippa Northeast as Sybylla who is the shiny thing from which we cannot avert our eyes.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 11, 2026
Now, merely to avert any ill-luck, I babble mechanically: “I will fulfil everything, fulfil everything I have promised you—” but already I know that I shall not do so.
From "All Quiet on the Western Front: A Novel" by Erich Maria Remarque
That marks a drop of more than 30% from their May peak and likely averts the disaster commodity experts had warned about as one of the largest crude supply shortages in history began playing out.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 18, 2026
The deal is good because it averts an outcome that has become common: the conversion of a great studio into a diminished version of itself after being absorbed by a traditional rival.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 8, 2025
And even if China averts a full-scale crisis, long-term growth will be sharply constrained by a working-age population that will fall by nearly a quarter by 2050.
From Seattle Times ● Aug. 30, 2023
President Biden is scheduled to deliver a rare Oval Office address on Friday evening after congressional passage of legislation that narrowly averts the economic calamity of a first-ever default on the nation’s debt.
From New York Times ● Jun. 2, 2023
Mrs. Koster averts her eyes, staring down at the new wedding band on her finger, and I have a new, ugly suspicion.
From "Girl in the Blue Coat" by Monica Hesse
As a result of its new approach, the EPA no longer estimates the number of lives saved or diseases and hospitalizations averted.
From Slate ● Aug. 2, 2026
Board member Kelly Gonez also defended the new contracts, which averted an April strike.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 17, 2026
Had she done so a tragedy may have been averted.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 10, 2026
The development comes after summer strikes at Glasgow and Edinburgh airports were averted after new deals were struck.
From BBC ● Jul. 3, 2026
For my own part, I thought that if Mrs. Harker realised the danger herself, it was much pain as well as much danger averted.
From "Dracula" by Bram Stoker
Meta and the other companies settled with a Kentucky school district, averting a trial slated for June.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 22, 2026
On the NYSE, new 52-week highs outpaced new lows and numbered more than 100 again, so this buy signal is still in place — narrowly averting being stopped out.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 26, 2026
Jack Hendry was superb, averting danger more than once with his pace and reading of the game.
From BBC ● Jun. 21, 2026
But as the company’s leaders huddled in a conference room to discuss plans for averting disaster, two things happened that Susman and Jacob would never forget.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 20, 2026
She smiles politely, pats me on the shoulder, and then, averting her eyes from mine, squeezes past me to sit down.
From "Landscape with Invisible Hand" by M.T. Anderson
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.
