avant

avant — adjective

  • avantpositive
  • more avantcomparative
  • most avantsuperlative

1. describing art, music, films, or fashion that is new and experimental — going fu

1.adjectiveC1
Definition

describing art, music, films, or fashion that is new and experimental — going further than what most people consider normal or familiar at the time, like a film-maker who rejects traditional storytelling or a chef who serves surprising flavour combinations.

Example

The Tokyo gallery only shows avant films by directors under twenty-five.

attributive: avant + noun describing creative work

Élise wore an avant dress made from recycled coffee sacks and old buttons.

avant modifying a fashion item (dress)

Common collocations
  • avant film / avant cinema
  • avant art
  • avant fashion
  • avant design
  • avant music
  • avant literature
  • avant theatre
  • avant cuisine
Synonyms
  • experimental

    focuses on trying new methods; less emphasis on being ahead of the times

  • innovative

    positive and practical — can apply to technology or business, not just art

  • cutting-edge

    suggests the very latest developments; common in technology and science as well as art

  • avant-garde

    the full form; can also be a noun ('the avant-garde')

Antonyms
  • conventional

    following accepted styles and methods rather than breaking new ground

  • traditional

    rooted in long-established practices rather than experimentation

Grammar Patterns

avant + noun (film, art, fashion, music, design, cuisine, literature, theatre)

Usage Note

Almost always placed before a noun (attributive position) that names a creative field or object — 'avant film', 'avant design', 'avant cuisine'. Unlike 'avant-garde', the short form 'avant' is not used as a noun in English: you cannot say 'the avant' to refer to the movement. For predicative use (after 'be' or 'seem'), prefer the full form 'avant-garde'.

Common Mistakes

She is a well-known avant of the 1990s.
She is a well-known avant-garde artist of the 1990s.
'Avant' is an adjective only; the noun form is 'avant-garde'.
His music style is very avant.
He makes very avant music.
'Avant' is rarely used after a linking verb; place it before the noun it describes.
They showed an avant-gardeist film at the museum.
They showed an avant film at the museum.
The clipped form 'avant' is preferred in modern English; 'avant-gardeist' is non-standard and very rare.

Word family

Synonym discussion

Sense: adjective/1

'Avant', 'experimental', 'innovative', 'cutting-edge', and 'avant-garde' all describe things that break away from the ordinary, but they differ in scope and tone. 'Avant' is the shortest, most modern-sounding choice — it is a clipped form of 'avant-garde' and attaches directly to a noun, always in creative fields ('avant film', 'avant fashion'). 'Experimental' focuses on the process of trying new methods; it works in science and cooking as well as art. 'Innovative' has a practical, positive feel — a new phone design can be innovative, but it would rarely be called avant. 'Cutting-edge' highlights being at the very front of current developments, especially in technology. 'Avant-garde' is the full form and the only one that can also act as a noun: 'the avant-garde' refers to the movement or the group of artists as a whole. So: an experimental dish (the chef tried something new), an innovative company (they solved a problem differently), a cutting-edge phone (the latest technology), but an avant film (deliberately strange and ahead of its time).

avant ↗experimental ↗innovative ↗cutting-edge ↗avant-garde ↗

Common collocations

Nouns

  • avant film
  • avant art
  • avant fashion
  • avant design
  • avant music
  • avant cuisine

Adverbs

  • daringly avant
  • truly avant
  • refreshingly avant

Phrases

  • considered avant
  • dismissed as too avant

Prepositions

  • avant in (style / approach)
  • avant for (its time)

Etymology

FrenchEnglish

'Avant' is a shortened form of 'avant-garde', which English borrowed directly from French. The French word combines 'avant' (before / ahead) with 'garde' (guard), and originally referred to the soldiers who marched at the front of an army — the vanguard. In the early 1900s, the term was applied to artists and writers who saw themselves as pushing ahead of mainstream culture, like an advance guard for new ideas. The even shorter form 'avant' emerged in English in the later 1900s as a casual, punchy version used mainly in arts journalism and criticism.