English → Latin
“avoid” in Latin
fugiōto flee, fly, take flight, escape, depart, run, run away, recede; to speed, hasten, pass quickly; to avoid, shun, be avedēfugiōto flee, escape; to shun, avoidvītōto avoid, evade; to shundēvītōto avoid; to shundēclīnōto bend, deviate, turn aside/away, deflect; to inflect, decline; to avoid
The English word avoid itself goes back to Latin vacuus, through *vocitāre.
Riddle & Arnold A Copious and Critical English–Latin Lexicon, 1864
avoid
fugere: defugere (fly from, and so keep out of the way): vitare: devitare (to go out of the way of): declinare (to lean aside from). To avoid a battle, proelium defugere: a danger, periculum fugere, defugere (not to expose one’s self to it), vitare (being exposed to it, to get out of its way at the right time). Season teaches us what to do and what to avoid, ratio docet, quid faciendum fugiendumve sit: to avoid hurtful things, ea, quae nocitura videantur, declinare.
Quick answer
- What is the Latin word for avoid?
- The usual Latin words for “avoid” are fugiō, dēfugiō, vītō; also dēvītō, dēclīnō. The right choice depends on the sense; see the distinctions below.
Entry from J. E. Riddle & T. K. Arnold, A Copious and Critical English–Latin Lexicon (rev. C. Anthon, New York: Harper, 1864), digitised by Fergus J. P. Walsh, CC BY-SA 4.0; Latin markup adapted by latindictionary.co.