Word
avoid
US/əˈvɔɪd/
UK/ɐvˈɔɪd/
Definitions
01to stay away from
v. to keep away from a person, place, or thing.
v. to keep away from or shun a person, place, or object through deliberate action.
“He took a different path to avoid meeting his boss in the hallway.”
“The celebrity avoided the main entrance of the hotel to escape the crowd of photographers waiting for a statement.”
Usage
Always followed by a noun or a gerund (-ing form).
Pitfall
I avoided to talk to him.
I avoided talking to him.
The verb 'avoid' must be followed by a gerund (-ing form), not an infinitive.
02to prevent something
v. to stop something bad from happening or to keep yourself from doing something.
v. to prevent the occurrence of an undesirable event or to refrain from a specific action.
“You should wear a seatbelt to avoid injury in case of an accident.”
“The pilot performed a sharp maneuver to avoid a collision with the unidentified drone hovering near the runway.”
Usage
Commonly used with abstract nouns like 'conflict', 'injury', or 'mistakes'.
03to make void
v. to make a contract or legal agreement no longer valid.
v. to render a contract, plea, or transaction void or invalid.
“The judge decided to avoid the contract because one person was forced to sign it.”
“The court moved to avoid the agreement on the grounds that the defendant had misrepresented the company's financial health during negotiations.”
Formal · Technical
Teaching tip
In everyday English, people use 'cancel' or 'invalidate'; 'avoid' in this sense is strictly for legal contexts.
Synonyms
Confusables
Avoid is staying away from a person or thing; prevent is stopping an event from occurring.
RememberAvoid the person; prevent the problem.
Etymology
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.
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Scan code
englishreference.com/q/avoid