vanguard

Hello, you have come here looking for the meaning of the word vanguard. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word vanguard, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say vanguard in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word vanguard you have here. The definition of the word vanguard will help you to be more precise and correct when speaking or writing your texts. Knowing the definition ofvanguard, as well as those of other words, enriches your vocabulary and provides you with more and better linguistic resources.

English

Etymology

Earlier forms included vandgard and (a)vantgard, derived from Old French avan(t)garde (before guard). Doublet of avant-garde and vaward.

Pronunciation

Noun

vanguard (plural vanguards)

  1. (military) The leading units at the front of an army or fleet.
    Synonyms: advance guard, (obsolete) avant-garde
    Antonym: rearguard
  2. (by extension) The person(s) at the forefront of any group or movement.
    Synonym: avant-garde
    • 1921, Ben Travers, chapter 4, in A Cuckoo in the Nest, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company, published 1925, →OCLC:
      By some paradoxical evolution rancour and intolerance have been established in the vanguard of primitive Christianity. Mrs. Spoker, in common with many of the stricter disciples of righteousness, was as inclement in demeanour as she was cadaverous in aspect.
    • 2014 November 17, Roger Cohen, “The horror! The horror! The trauma of ISIS ”, in The New York Times:
      ne minute this "Jihadi John" was struggling to get by, and get accepted, in drizzly England, unemployed with a mortgage to pay and a chip on his shoulder, and the next he stands in brilliant Levantine sunlight, where everything is clear and etched, at the vanguard of some Sunni Risorgimento intent on subjecting the world to its murderous brand of Wahhabi Islam.

Translations