avant-garde

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Still, what I found troubling was friends - talking about art history and classics - saying things like: "Peer review naturally favours the mainstream, and has no interest in the avant-garde or the marginal.

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Definitions (7)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (2)

  1. noun A group active in the invention and application of new techniques in a given field, especially in the arts.
  2. adjective Of, relating to, or being part of an innovative group, especially one in the arts: avant-garde painters; an avant-garde theater piece.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (1)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (2)

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Examples (50)

  • "Innovative," "cerebral," and "avant-garde" are descriptors routinely applied to Junya Watanabe's technically brilliant creations. —  Style.com: Daily Fashion Show Pictures
  • But more and more, people are accepting a more avant-garde color palette and decorative options. —  azcentral.com | news
  • Bertram's declarations that Brian Eno is a "bald hack who molests little girls" and that John Cage "had no idea what he was doing," show how much contempt the young buck has for his avant-garde predecessors.
  • Slate had a curious review last week that claimed the re-cut shows are so choppy that they manage to turn the original kitsch into something almost avant-garde, but that seems like wishful thinking to me. —  Entertainment Weekly's PopWatch
  • When a 10-foot-tall woman made out of cardboard boxes continually knocks a man off the park bench the two are sitting on, causing his bowler to spin to the corner of the stage but his smile barely to waver, you know that you are either at avant-garde or children's theater.
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This word has been looked up 81 times.

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Etymologies (2)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. French, from Old French, vanguard; see vanguard.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. from French avant-garde, from avant, before, + garde, guard: see vanguard.
 

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