How to spell avoid

hear ita·void/ə'vɔɪd/verbLong vowels

What it means: To stay away from someone or something.

In a sentence: Avoid touching the hot stove.

The part people get wrong

Often misspelled as aviod or avoide.

Same family: avoids, avoided, avoiding, avoidable, unavoidable. If you can spell one, the shared part carries to the others.

Where it comes from: Avoid comes from Old French "esvuidier," meaning "to empty out" or "to clear out of the way." Over time, the meaning shifted in English to our modern sense of keeping away from something or preventing it from happening.

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Words like this

spoil · voice · phenomenon · prove · invitation · toilet · possible · provide

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