avoid
- 01 A2 Elementary
to keep away from a person, place, or thing.
to keep away from or shun a person, place, or object through deliberate action.
Simple“He took a different path to avoid meeting his boss in the hallway.”
In context“The celebrity avoided the main entrance of the hotel to escape the crowd of photographers waiting for a statement.”
UsageAlways followed by a noun or a gerund (-ing form).
PitfallI avoided to talk to him. I avoided talking to him.The verb 'avoid' must be followed by a gerund (-ing form), not an infinitive.
- 02 A2 Elementary
to stop something bad from happening or to keep yourself from doing something.
to prevent the occurrence of an undesirable event or to refrain from a specific action.
Simple“You should wear a seatbelt to avoid injury in case of an accident.”
In context“The pilot performed a sharp maneuver to avoid a collision with the unidentified drone hovering near the runway.”
UsageCommonly used with abstract nouns like 'conflict', 'injury', or 'mistakes'.
- 03 C1 Advanced
to make a contract or legal agreement no longer valid.
to render a contract, plea, or transaction void or invalid.
Simple“The judge decided to avoid the contract because one person was forced to sign it.”
In context“The court moved to avoid the agreement on the grounds that the defendant had misrepresented the company's financial health during negotiations.”
Teacher's tipIn everyday English, people use 'cancel' or 'invalidate'; 'avoid' in this sense is strictly for legal contexts.
Synonyms
avoid vs prevent — Avoid is staying away from a person or thing; prevent is stopping an event from occurring.
Usage avoid injuries · avoid bias · avoid consequence
From Middle English avoiden, from Anglo-Norman avoider, Old French esvuidier (“to empty out”), from es- + vuidier, from Vulgar Latin vocitāre < Vulgar Latin vocitum, ultimately related to Latin vacuus. Displaced native Old English forbūgan (literally “to bend away from”).
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.