avoids

verb

present tense third-person singular of avoid
1
as in evades
to get or keep away from (as a responsibility) through cleverness or trickery trying to avoid writing thank-you notes for the gifts he didn't like

Synonyms & Similar Words

Relevance

Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in abolishes
to put an end to by formal action asked the court to avoid the contract because it was signed under duress

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 avoids At the asparagus/salmon roundtable, Rikke turns down a phone call and avoids her brother’s sixth-sense worried gaze. — Jessica Kiang, Variety, 7 July 2026 The decision avoids an election-year change in the voting rules and may bolster Democrats in the fall election. — Los Angeles Times, 29 June 2026 When finance leaders think about excise tax, the conversation often starts and ends with the tax team being a cost center that files the returns, meets the deadlines and avoids penalties. — Ryan Padget, Forbes.com, 7 July 2026 The person raising an issue is framed as the aggressor, while the other partner consistently avoids accountability. — Mark Travers, CNBC, 5 July 2026 Iris LaRue, the museum’s director, avoids those conversations. — Chris Kenning, USA Today, 2 July 2026 The property has a maximalist, preppy aesthetic that somehow avoids feeling overwhelming. — Elizabeth Cantrell, Travel + Leisure, 6 July 2026 That process also avoids the use of shielding gases in smelting, and Faulks says that for casting, Lola uses a shielding gas that isn’t environmentally damaging. — Jonathan M. Gitlin, ArsTechnica, 7 July 2026 Middleton also reportedly avoids drinking tap water when travelling overseas because of concerns over bacteria, contaminants or unfamiliar mineral content. — Lizzie Lanuza, StyleCaster, 3 July 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for avoids
  1. evades
  2. abolishes
  3. escapes
  4. cancels
  5. prevents
  6. repeals
  7. eliminates
  8. dodges
Verb
  • If the armed forces are the instrument through which the president evades the Constitution, then the leaders of those armed forces must answer for their role.
    — Jon Duffy, Mercury News, 25 June 2026
  • Panthalassa evades these regional regulatory and environmental obstacles by deploying autonomous computing nodes directly into deep water.
    — Aman Tripathi, Interesting Engineering, 19 June 2026
Definition of evades
Verb
  • Instead, this measure abolishes them.
    — Jon Coupal, Oc Register, 31 Aug. 2025
  • The Iranian parliament has just approved a law that abolishes prison sentences for those who had to leave Iran illegally.
    — Zac Ntim, Deadline, 11 Aug. 2025
Definition of abolishes
Verb
  • The highest technology will not be the one that escapes nature but the one that learns how to participate in its deepest creative computation.
    — Pravir Malik, Forbes.com, 1 July 2026
  • On clear, dry nights — like those across much of the interior West — that heat escapes very efficiently into space.
    — Brandi D. Addison, USA Today, 1 July 2026
Definition of escapes
Verb
  • To combat bots, Ticketmaster, the primary ticketing platform for many concerts, blocks automated software, identifies and shuts down fake accounts and cancels orders that violate its policies.
    — Sydney Goh, CNBC, 27 June 2026
  • If your airline cancels your flight, request a cash refund.
    — Christopher Elliott, Forbes.com, 27 June 2026
Definition of cancels
Verb
  • This layer prevents water, nutrients, and air from reaching the roots.
    — Karen Brewer Grossman, Southern Living, 5 July 2026
  • This method prevents the stalk from snapping off and offers support both above and below the soil.
    — Emily Hayes, Martha Stewart, 5 July 2026
Definition of prevents
Verb
  • The measure repeals provisions in Finland’s 1987 Nuclear Energy Act that banned the import, production, possession and detonation of nuclear explosives.
    — Bonny Chu, FOXNews.com, 18 June 2026
  • To offset some of the cost of the cuts, the law repeals several existing tax credits and sales tax exemptions, including incentives tied to teleworking expenses, electric and hybrid vehicles, and medical equipment manufacturing.
    — Christopher Harris, CBS News, 11 May 2026
Definition of repeals
Verb
  • The researchers’ method, detailed in the journal Chemical Engineering, completely eliminates the drying process, turning moisture to an advantage.
    — New Atlas, New Atlas, 1 July 2026
  • While requiring a fourth crew member, manual loading offers flexibility in ammunition handling and eliminates reliance on a mechanical autoloader.
    — Kaif Shaikh, Interesting Engineering, 30 June 2026
Definition of eliminates
Verb
  • Hatcher — a Pomo shape-shifter who dodges prejudice by passing as Mexican in the novel — is a thorny protagonist, often cunning, scheming and unforgiving.
    — Maddie Connors, Los Angeles Times, 24 June 2026
  • Lionel Messi rebounds his own miss and dodges three Austrian defenders with a sliding second goal in stoppage time to put the exclamation mark on an historic performance for him and Argentina today in Arlington.
    — Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 22 June 2026
Definition of dodges

Browse Nearby Words

avoiding
avoids
avoirdupois
See all Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Avoids.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/avoids. Accessed 8 Jul. 2026.

Copy Citation

More from Merriam-Webster on avoids

Nglish: Translation of avoids for Spanish Speakers

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!

More from Merriam-Webster

Word of the Day

Listen to the pronunciation of gambol

See Definitions and Examples »

Popular in Grammar & Usage

See More

Is that lie 'bald-faced' or 'bold-faced'?

'A' or 'an'? What about before 'h'? An Indefinite Article Guide

Why is '-ed' sometimes pronounced at the end of a word?

Commonly Misspelled Words

How to Use Em Dashes (—), En Dashes (–) , and Hyphens (-)
See More

Popular in Wordplay

See More

14 Phobias You Probably Haven't Heard Of

The Longest Long Words List

One-Word Oxymorons: Bittersweet, Spendthrift, and More

Ten Words Ending with a Silent ‘T’

12 Lovely and Unusual Words for the Natural World
See More

Popular

See More

Is that lie 'bald-faced' or 'bold-faced'?

14 Phobias You Probably Haven't Heard Of

The Longest Long Words List
See More

Games & Quizzes

See All
Play Quordle: Guess all four words in a limited number of tries. Each of your guesses must be a real 5-letter word.
Quordle Can you solve 4 words at once?
Play Blossom: Solve today's spelling word game by finding as many words as you can using just 7 letters. Longer words score more points.
Blossom Pick the best words!
Play Missing Letter: a crossword with a twist. Each of the 25 puzzle words start with a different letter of the alphabet. Which letter is missing?
The Missing Letter A daily crossword with a twist
hangman letters and game
Hangman Lightning Round Figure out which word fits in the blanks.
See All