Vanguard is a word that is sometimes found confusing. We will look at the definition of the word vanguard, where it came from and some examples of its use in sentences.
The vanguard is the contingent of people who are at the forefront of innovation, new ideas and new industries. People in the vanguard are considered leaders who push society, academics or commerce in new directions. The term vanguard is derived from the medieval method of battle, where the army was divided into three parts. The vanguard was the section of the army acting as the advance guard, the first soldiers to scout or engage the enemy. The middle guard was the main body of the army and the rear guard moved tactically. Vanguard is still used to mean the forward part of an army. This forward fighting group was known as the vauntgard or the avantgarde in French.
Examples
More than half of the books submitted for the TA first translation prize are debuts for their translators as well as English-language debuts for their authors, showing that translators are in the vanguard of literary change. (The Guardian)
The Union Carbide Building deserves to continue existing, not because it was in the vanguard of a movement with a dubious urban legacy, but because it’s among the finest of its kind. (New York Magazine)
John and Penny Duncan were in the vanguard of local food producers in Maine, making award-winning goat cheese. (The Press Herald)
Miller was near the vanguard of the idea in the South, where only Florida and Louisiana beat Georgia to the lottery game. (The Newnan Times-Herald)
Despite extensive snow and ice, the vanguard of American robins, red-winged blackbirds, American kestrels, ring-billed gulls, red-tailed hawks, and peregrine falcons have joined the trumpeter swans, Canada geese, common goldeneyes, common mergansers, and other waterfowl as far north as Lake Superior. (The Appleton Post Crescent)