avoidance

UK/əˈvɔɪdəns/US/əˈvɔɪdəns/

nounB2+Occasional — familiar, but not everyday · #10,488 of 15,258leans written

Avoidance is the keeping away from something on purpose. Tax avoidance, avoidance behaviour, the avoidance of risk.

Tax avoidance is lawful and evasion is not, and the whole political argument is about where the line falls. In psychology, avoidance is what keeps a fear alive: not facing the thing means never learning that it was survivable.

Definitions of avoidance

1nounavoidanceThe keeping away from something on purpose.B2+
“His avoidance of eye contact made the interviewer suspect he was lying.”

avoidance is a keeping away.

Where it comes from

From avoid, from Anglo-Norman avoider, to empty out or make void, plus -ance.

Middle English
avoidaunce
English, today
avoidance

From Middle English avoidaunce, from avoid + -ance.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practise this word

avoidance in the wild

Related terms for tax avoidance include tax planning and tax sheltering.
Tax noncompliance
A tax treaty, also called double tax agreement (DTA) or double tax avoidance agreement (DTAA), is an agreement between two countries to avoid or mitigate double taxation.
Tax treaty
Tax avoidance is the legal use of the tax regime in a single territory to one's own advantage to reduce the amount of tax that is payable.
Tax avoidance
A tax shelter is one type of tax avoidance, and tax havens are jurisdictions that facilitate reduced taxes.
Tax avoidance
Abstinence-only sex education (also known as sexual risk avoidance education) is a form of sex education that teaches not having sex outside of marriage.
Abstinence-only sex education

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

Related words

avoid

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