evite

Word family

• evitation
  nounC2
• evitable
  adjectiveC2
• inevitable
  adjectiveB2

Synonym discussion

Sense: verb/1

Avoid is by far the most common and neutral word in this group — it covers everything from dodging a physical object to steering clear of a situation or obligation ('She avoided the puddle on the sidewalk'). Shun carries a stronger social and emotional weight, typically used when someone deliberately rejects or ignores another person ('After the scandal, his former colleagues shunned him'). Eschew is a formal synonym that often suggests a principled or conscious abstention ('The chef eschews processed ingredients in all her dishes'). Steer clear of is an informal, idiomatic alternative that is very common in everyday spoken English ('I'd steer clear of that topic at dinner'). Evite sits at the far end of the rarity spectrum — a reader encountering it in a 19th-century novel or a deliberately archaic piece of prose would understand it, but using it in modern speech or writing would sound affected.

Common collocations

Etymology

Borrowed into English in the 16th century from Latin ēvītāre, which is formed from the prefix ē- ('out, away') and vītāre ('to shun, avoid'). The same Latin root vītāre also gives us the very rare adjective 'inevitable' (through a different path). Despite its clear Latin ancestry, 'evite' never became common in English — it remained a literary and scholarly word, and by the 20th century it had all but disappeared from ordinary use.