Definition of "avant" []

• The front of an army; the vanguard. (noun)

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• "On a general level it provides excellent etymological and semantic analyses of the term avant-garde."
• "The term avant garde (literally advance guard or vanguard) refers to works that are experimental or innovative and pushes the boundaries of what is typically accepted as the status quo."
• "And Uncle Tom's Cabin was seen by many, many people - some of whom were in what you call the avant-garde, and never thought of me as a black man who wanted to find a black voice - and the end of the piece had 52 naked people of every shape and size and color on stage, with my fully clothed, churchgoing mother amongst them, praising god."