avant-garde 1 of 2

avant-garde

2 of 2

noun

as in vanguard
the innovators of new concepts, styles, and techniques especially in the arts to the theater world's avant-garde, the melodrama seemed like a very old-fashioned play whose time had come and gone

Synonyms & Similar Words

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of avant-garde
Adjective
Prolific over a painfully brief career, Manzoni was one of the most radical artists of the postwar avant-garde in Italy, active between the late 1950s until his death in 1963. Natasha Gural, Forbes.com, 17 Sep. 2025 Meanwhile, Nicholas Aburn’s first collection for the avant-garde label Area featured theatrical party looks as well as more wearable streetwear, though with unexpected twists, true to the brand’s ethos. Jacqui Palumbo, CNN Money, 17 Sep. 2025
Noun
Is British avant-garde electronic group Art of Noise teaming up with Nine Inch Nails? Simon Vozick-Levinson, Rolling Stone, 16 Sep. 2025 Alex Katz: Theater and Dance Six Decades of Collaboration Between Visual Art and Performance This is the first major exhibition dedicated to Alex Katz’s extensive collaborations with choreographers, dancers, and avant-garde theater artists. Lee Sharrock, Forbes.com, 15 Sep. 2025 See All Example Sentences for avant-garde
Recent Examples of Synonyms for avant-garde
Adjective
  • In the image, Kimmel has his arm around Lear, a pioneer of socially conscious sitcoms and progressive activism.
    Amanda Castro, MSNBC Newsweek, 24 Sep. 2025
  • His Republican predecessors, Schmitt and, before him, Josh Hawley, also used the position to advance conservative causes, wage fights against progressive ones and raise their national profiles.
    Jeremy Kohler, ProPublica, 24 Sep. 2025
Noun
  • The home of world-leading firms such as Samsung, Hyundai, and LG spent decades at technology’s vanguard, but fortunes have wilted in recent years because of a stifling regulatory environment, demographic pressures, and fierce competition from China.
    Charlie Campbell, Time, 17 Sep. 2025
  • He’s so far collaborated with acts like Ecco2k and Xaviersobased, themselves vanguards of the underground-rap scene.
    Jeff Ihaza, Rolling Stone, 9 Sep. 2025
Adjective
  • The line of processors can support up to 128 gigabytes of advanced, low-power DRAM memory, LPDDR5x RAM.
    IEEE Spectrum, IEEE Spectrum, 25 Sep. 2025
  • The drones, which typically fly at 200 feet, are equipped with advanced camera systems.
    Doc Louallen, ABC News, 25 Sep. 2025
Noun
  • Burnham Yard also is near an Environmental Protection Agency Superfund site for radium contamination, but the Terracon report did not find any indication that there is a substantial amount of radioactive material underground.
    Elliott Wenzler, Denver Post, 14 Sep. 2025
  • But now European and American scientists are exploring whether the first human Martians could find refuge via dormant volcanos scattered across the Red Planet, inside lava tubes that criss-cross the Mars underground.
    Kevin Holden Platt, Forbes.com, 9 Sep. 2025
Adjective
  • Lopez appeared to have hit his stride—the gown epitomized the unconventional opulence of his design language.
    Ana Karina Zatarain, New Yorker, 19 Sep. 2025
  • Conventional ideas of leisure are sins; the unconventional is redemptive.
    Nicole Flattery, Harpers Magazine, 19 Sep. 2025
Adjective
  • As per the team, the pioneering solution marks a massive step forward in making the first hydride ion prototype battery, moving the technology from a theoretical concept to experimental proof of its feasibility.
    Georgina Jedikovska, Interesting Engineering, 19 Sep. 2025
  • The mountain community, which was little more than a one-lift ski hill known as Timp Haven, became synonymous with independent film and a pioneering model of sustainable tourism under Redford’s stewardship.
    Emese Maczko, Forbes.com, 18 Sep. 2025
Adjective
  • Jim Rinnert was the longtime art director for In These Times magazine and a theater enthusiast who co-wrote an award-winning multimedia theatrical work based on the writings of avant-grade theater and cinema artist Antonin Artaud.
    Bob Goldsborough, Chicago Tribune, 21 Aug. 2025
  • The product of a multinational household — daughter of a West African percussionist and a Swedish designer, stepdaughter of avant-jazz trumpeter Don Cherry — this year's most daring Best New Artist nominee went on to join several abrasive and ear-shattering British punk bands in the early '80s.
    EW.com, EW.com, 13 Aug. 2025
Adjective
  • Hepburn’s Balmain number was a modern choice that paved the way for other brides of the time and even today to shy away from traditional floor-length gowns.
    Ariana Quihuiz, PEOPLE, 25 Sep. 2025
  • What’s Next Transgender participation in sports continues to be one of the most contentious issues in modern sports.
    MSNBC Newsweek, MSNBC Newsweek, 25 Sep. 2025

Browse Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Avant-garde.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/avant-garde. Accessed 29 Sep. 2025.

More from Merriam-Webster on avant-garde

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!