avatar
noun
Brian X. ChenSam Leith
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Water. Earth. Fire. Air. These are just some of the elements and environments that video game avatars—the images representing and controlled by players—have faced since the days of Space Invaders, to say nothing of today's Pandora’s box of assorted baddies. Avatar comes from the Sanskrit word avatāraḥ, meaning “descent.” When avatar first appeared in English in the late 18th century, it referred to the descent of a deity to the earth—typically, the incarnation in earthly form of Vishnu or another Hindu deity. It later came to refer to any incarnation in human form, and then to any embodiment (such as the embodiment of a concept or philosophy), whether or not in the form of a person. All of these senses of avatar are still in use today, joined by the more recent computing/gaming sense, which may refer to “you” embodied as a mustachioed Italian plumber, for example, even if you are not, in fact, a mustachioed Italian plumber.
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Examples of avatar in a Sentence
New Atlas, 29 Jan. 2025
At the same time, Angelou is routinely reduced to an unthreatening avatar of inspirational platitudes, her work often overlooked by academics and critics even as her most quotable quips circulate endlessly.
—TIME, 28 Jan. 2025
An enemy of China who wants TikTok to turn into a 50/50 venture between the avatar of capitalism and the tech bros of Communism.
—David Mastio, The Mercury News, 22 Jan. 2025
Tom Cruise, that avatar of all-American virility, opened the evening with an address that reaffirmed the rightness of the proceedings, much as Peck had in 1968.
—Michael Schulman, The New Yorker, 22 Jan. 2025
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“Avatar.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/avatar. Accessed 2 Feb. 2025.
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