What does avant mean?
Avant is a French-derived prefix or combining form meaning 'before' or 'in front of'. It rarely stands alone in English; instead it survives inside a small number of fixed borrowings, the most famous being 'avant-garde' — literally the vanguard of an army, and by extension any radically innovative artistic, cultural, or intellectual movement. When critics describe a film, a piece of music, or a design as avant-garde, they mean it breaks with convention and seems to arrive ahead of its time. A related literary borrowing, 'avant la lettre', describes something that embodied a concept before anyone had coined the term for it. The element traces back through Old French to the Latin phrase 'ab ante', meaning 'from before', which also gives English 'advance', 'advantage', and 'vanguard'. Though narrow in scope, 'avant' carries strong connotations of originality, boldness, and forward thinking wherever it appears.
prefix / combining formA prefix borrowed from French meaning 'before' or 'in front of', used chiefly in fixed borrowings from French such as 'avant-garde'. It signals something that comes first, leads the way, or exists ahead of its time.
- As a combining form meaning 'before' or 'in front of', occurring almost exclusively in loan phrases from French, most commonly 'avant-garde'.
"The gallery specializes in avant-garde film from the 1960s."
"Her designs were considered avant-garde when she debuted them in Paris."
"The term avant-garde originally described the leading troops of an army before it was applied to radical artists."
Every time you say 'avant-garde', you're speaking French — literally 'the guard that marches ahead of the army.'
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of avant
Avant comes from Old French 'avant', meaning 'before' or 'forward', which developed from the Latin phrase 'ab ante', literally 'from before'. The same Latin root produced the English words 'advance', 'advantage', and 'vanguard', all entering English via French. Borrowed into English in fixed phrases beginning in the early modern period, it remains productive only within those established loans, especially 'avant-garde', whose figurative artistic sense dates from the nineteenth century.
Related word forms
How avant is actually used
'Avant' does not stand alone as an independent English word; it appears only within established borrowings from French, above all 'avant-garde'. Because these are fixed phrases, writers should not coin new 'avant-' formations casually. The phrase 'avant la lettre' ('before the letter', i.e. before the term existed) is a further literary borrowing.
Easily confused with avant
'Avante' is a widespread misspelling; the correct form is 'avant', without the final 'e'.