Vanguard

How to spell vanguard

8 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce vanguard

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does vanguard mean?

1. nounThe leading position in a movement, field, or army, or the people occupying it.

Vanguard in a sentence

• The company stayed in the vanguard of electric car design for a decade.

• A small vanguard of soldiers crossed the bridge ahead of the main force.

Where does vanguard come from?

Language of origin: French

This word is a shortened English form of the French avant-garde, which literally meant the 'advance guard', the troops marching at the very front of an army. The first element, avant, traces back to the Latin abante, a fusion of ab 'from' and ante 'before', so it carries the plain sense of being out in front. The second element, garde, comes through Old French from a Germanic root meaning to watch over or protect, the same source that gives us 'guard' and 'ward'. English took the compound in during the 1400s and gradually clipped avant- down to the simpler 'van-', which is why the spelling looks so unrelated to its French parent. From the literal military meaning it broadened to describe anyone at the leading edge of a movement or idea, while the unclipped 'avant-garde' was later borrowed again specifically for experimental art. The spelling trap lives in that compressed first syllable: it is 'van', not 'vang', joined to a clearly recognisable 'guard'.

How the word is built

• van- (reduced from French avant: in front, ahead)
• guard (a protecting body of troops)