What does averting mean?
Averting is the present participle and gerund of the verb avert, which carries two related senses rooted in the idea of turning away. Its dominant modern use is preventive: to avert a crisis, disaster, strike, or war is to take action that keeps that undesirable event from happening, and the word appears constantly in journalism about narrowly avoided catastrophes. The older, more literal sense is physical — to avert one's eyes or gaze is deliberately to turn them away from something unpleasant, shameful, or unbearable. Both senses derive from the Latin vertere, 'to turn', combined with the prefix a- (from ab-, 'away from'), giving the literal meaning 'to turn away'. Averting carries a formal tone and often implies timely intervention or vigilance; success in averting something suggests danger was real but skilfully handled. It remains a precise, valuable word for describing both the deflection of attention and the prevention of harm.
Preventing or warding off something undesirable; or turning away (one's eyes or thoughts) from something.
"Emergency services worked through the night, averting a potential flood catastrophe."
Typically followed by a noun denoting a negative event: crisis, disaster, war, famine, catastrophe.
The action or process of preventing something undesirable or of turning one's gaze away.
"The constant averting of his gaze made the interview awkward."
From Latin vertere, 'to turn', the same root behind 'vertigo' — so when you're averting disaster, you're literally turning it away.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of averting
Averting derives from the verb avert, borrowed into English in the early 15th century from Latin avertere, formed from ab- ('away from') plus vertere ('to turn'). The word therefore literally means 'to turn away', a sense still alive in the phrase 'avert one's eyes'. It shares its Latin root with a wide family of English words built on vertere, including convert, invert, divert, revert, and vertigo. The preventive sense — turning aside an approaching evil — developed naturally from this core idea and is now the most frequent use.
Related word forms
How averting is actually used
Formal in register; common in news reporting on disasters, crises, and conflicts. In the physical sense, usually appears as 'avert one's eyes/gaze'.
Easily confused with averting
'Adverting' means referring or turning attention to a subject, while 'averting' means preventing something or turning away from it — they differ by only one letter but are nearly opposite in sense.