Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The foremost position in an army or fleet advancing into battle.
  • noun The foremost or leading position in a trend or movement.
  • noun Those occupying a foremost position.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To stand as a guard before.
  • noun A detachment of an army whose duty it is to guard against surprise from the front and to clear the way; the van. Compare van.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Mil.) The troops who march in front of an army; the advance guard; the van.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun The leading units at the front of an army or fleet.
  • noun by extension The person(s) at the forefront of any group or movement.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun the position of greatest importance or advancement; the leading position in any movement or field
  • noun any creative group active in the innovation and application of new concepts and techniques in a given field (especially in the arts)
  • noun the leading units moving at the head of an army

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English vandgard, from avaunt garde, from Old French : avaunt, before (from Latin abante; see advance) + garde, guard (from garder, to guard; see guard).]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Earlier forms vandgard and (a)vantgard, derived from Old French, avan(t)garde from avant (before) + garde (guard).

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Examples

  • Karmakin, I invest in vanguard’s money market fund (not FDIC insured, but very safe and earns % 5.15 percent), and vanguard’s indexed funds. vanguard is well respected. many call it a charity company because their management fees are so low. and a lot of research suggests that indexed funds outperform mutual funds.

    Matthew Yglesias » A Question 2007

  • The ever forward-thinking '80s music vanguard is helping to drown out the sound of online flotsam with a new music and entertainment recommendation system.

    Celebrity-Backed Startups Maureen Farrell 2010

  • The ever forward-thinking '80s music vanguard is helping to drown out the sound of online flotsam with a new music and entertainment recommendation system.

    Celebrity-Backed Startups Maureen Farrell 2010

  • The ever forward-thinking '80s music vanguard is helping to drown out the sound of online flotsam with a new music and entertainment recommendation system.

    Celebrity-Backed Startups Maureen Farrell 2010

  • This has become a motif among net-critics, whose vanguard is Andrew Keen, who wrote a sloppy, intellectually dishonest book called The Cult of the Amateur that damns the Internet for much the same reasons (Clay Shirky wrote a great response to Keen).

    Boing Boing 2007

  • We have to try to make this factory a model one, but not the kind of model place they call vanguard, that wins 10 medals, or 3 banners.

    CASTRO CONTINUES CAMAGUEY PROVINCE TOUR 1987

  • The Federal vanguard is reported to be five miles from the Southern capital, to which point the Confederates had fallen back without any real resistance.

    Foreign and Colonial News 1862

  • As hugely expensive as it is to design, produce, fly, and maintain vanguard fighters, it takes far more effort and money to hone pilots’ skills, to keep squadrons of pilots like Rodriguez constantly flying, practicing, and getting better.

    The Last Ace 2009

  • As hugely expensive as it is to design, produce, fly, and maintain vanguard fighters, it takes far more effort and money to hone pilots’ skills, to keep squadrons of pilots like Rodriguez constantly flying, practicing, and getting better.

    The Last Ace 2009

  • Being in the vanguard is nothing new for Nappier, who in 1998 became not only the first African American woman to hold statewide office in Connecticut but the first African American woman to hold a U.S. state treasurer’s seat.

    From Ms. Mag: A State Treasure | PopPolitics.com 2005

Comments

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  • The Vultee P-66. More on Wikipedia.

    December 30, 2008

  • In the dynamic aspect of the revolution the man of action should be a vanguard for the intellectual, and in the sphere of art, thought, and scientific investigation, the intellectual should be a vanguard for the man of action.

    Jean Franco, "Critical Passions"

    July 28, 2011