Definition of ADVERT

Did You Know?

Verb

You may be familiar with the noun "advert," which is used, especially in British sources, as a shortened form of "advertising." That's one way to use "advert," but it has also been used as a verb in English since the 15th century. There's a hint about the origin of the verb in the idea of "turning" the mind or attention to something; the word derives via Anglo-French from the Latin verb advertere, which in turn comes from Latin vertere, meaning "to turn." "Vertere" is the ancestor of a number of words in English, including "controversy," "divert," "invert," "revert," and even "versatile." In addition, we'd like to turn your attention to one particular ''vertere" descendant: avert, meaning "to avoid." Be careful to avoid mixing this one up with "advert."

Examples of advert in a Sentence

Noun

I saw your advert in the newspaper. busily perusing the job adverts in the Sunday Times

Recent Examples on the Web: Verb

The company’s listed adverting policies don’t currently list the age restriction — that will change when the policy will take effect on June 21st. — Andrew Liptak, The Verge, "Facebook will stop showing minors ads for gun accessories," 17 June 2018 Digital-only advertising, however, was up nearly 10 percent in 2017, largely offsetting the impact of the softening print adverting declines on total digital advertising. — Mark Glover, sacbee, "McClatchy boosts digital audience, advertising revenue in 2017 | The Sacramento Bee," 16 Feb. 2018 Donations also go toward adverting campaigns like radio ads to help get the word out about their mission needs. — Birmingham Magazine, AL.com, "Jimmie Hale Mission nears 75th year serving Birmingham," 19 Dec. 2017 Yet to advert to rules of tonal consistency is to impose an external, puristic point of view on material that is wonderfully motley and personal. — Jesse Green, New York Times, "Review: ‘Bubbly Black Girl’ Lets a Smile Be Her Camouflage," 27 July 2017

Recent Examples on the Web: Noun

Television and social-media adverts boast of the public works carried out by his government. — The Economist, "Argentina’s main presidential candidates are ignoring the biggest problems," 12 July 2019 Framestore had to negotiate with Hepburn’s family in order to make its advert. — The Economist, "What if AI made actors immortal?," 5 July 2018 The advert is a play on the recent college admissions scandal, in which actress Lori Loughlin and her husband Mossimo Giannulli, allegedly paid $500,000 to get their daughters into USC as rowers, even though neither row crew. — Marianne Garvey, CNN, "'Family Guy' Emmys ad pokes fun at college admissions scandal," 4 June 2019 Anja Lambrecht and Catherine Tucker, two economists, placed adverts promoting jobs in science, technology, engineering and maths on Facebook. — The Economist, "How an algorithm may decide your career," 21 June 2018 The company’s chairman wrote an op-ed for a major British newspaper, its finance chief appeared on a high-profile BBC radio show and the company took out full-page adverts in the mainstream press. — Saabira Chaudhuri, WSJ, "Unilever Drops Plan to Leave London Amid Shareholder Revolt," 5 Oct. 2018 To some, the iconography will recall Abell’s now-iconic Marlboro adverts, famous for being appropriated by the artist Richard Prince. — Steff Yotka, Vogue, "The American West Has Never Looked Better Than in Acne Studios’s New Images of Cindy Crawford," 25 Sep. 2018 Its supporters have ransacked H&M clothing shops over an allegedly racist advert. — The Economist, "With Zuma gone, South Africa's opposition needs a new scapegoat," 14 Apr. 2018 Holmes and her 12-year-old daughter unwittingly made it into the billboard advert in Plumstead Common, south-east London, which had been mocked up to showcase the launch of Slade Café, set to open for local residents this month. — Lucy Wood, Marie Claire, "Katie Holmes and Suri Cruise Were Accidentally Used to Advertise a Café in London," 30 Oct. 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'advert.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

History and Etymology for advert

Verb

Middle English averten, adverten "to notice, think of, consider, be heedful," borrowed from Anglo-French avertir, advertir "to notify, (reflexive) recognize, be mindful of," going back to Vulgar Latin *advertīre, alteration (by conjugational shift) of Latin advertere "to turn or direct toward, direct (attention) toward, pay heed (to), attract the attention of," from ad- ad- + vertere "to turn" — more at worth entry 4

Noun

by shortening