avatar

• avatara (rare)
• Avator (obsolete)

Attested 1784,[1] borrowed from Hindustani अवतार / اوتار (avtār), from Sanskrit अवतार (avatāra, “descent of a deity from a heaven”), a compound of अव (ava, “off, away, down”) and the vṛddhi-stem of the root √तॄ (√tṝ, “to cross”).

In computing use, saw some use in 1980s videos games – 1985 online role-playing game Habitat by Lucasfilm Games (today LucasArts), by Chip Morningstar and Randy Farmer,[2] later versions of the Ultima series (following religious use in 1985 Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar), and 1989 pen and paper role-playing game Shadowrun. Popularized by the 1992 novel Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson.[1]

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˌæv.əˈtɑː/, /ˈæv.ə.tɑː/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈæv.ə.tɑɹ/

• Audio (Southern England)

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• Audio (US)

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• Audio (AU)

  (file)

• Hyphenation: av‧a‧tar
• Rhymes: -ɑː(ɹ)

avatar (plural avatars)

1. (Hinduism) An incarnation of a deity, particularly Vishnu.
2. The embodiment of an idea or concept; an instantiation, especially a personification or incarnation.
   • 1831, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XVI, in Romance and Reality. […], volume I, London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC, page 177:

     ...that a new avatar of Mrs. Siddons has appeared at Covent Garden, in the shape of her niece Fanny Kemble...

   • 1886 May 1 – July 31, Robert Louis Stevenson, “Dedication”, in Kidnapped, being Memoirs of the Adventures of David Balfour in the Year 1751: […], London, Paris: Cassell & Company, published 1886, →OCLC, pages v–vi:

     And honest Alan, who was a grim fire-eater in his day, has in this new avatar no more desperate purpose than to steal some young gentleman's attention from his Ovid, [...] [Contrasting the historical Alan Breac with his incarnation in the novel.]

3. (computing, video games, metaverse) A complex and dynamic digital representation of a person or being in the form of a digital model, used online as a simulation or emulation of a person, or as a person's online alter ego, in a virtual world, virtual chat room, or metaverse.
   • 1992, Neal Stephenson, Snow Crash, New York: Bantam Books, →ISBN, pages 35–36:

     The people are pieces of software called avatars. They are the audiovisual bodies that people use to communicate with each other in the Metaverse.

   • 2008, BioWare, Mass Effect (Science Fiction), Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →ISBN, →OCLC, PC, scene: Computers: Virtual Intelligence (VI) Codex entry:

     A virtual intelligence is an advanced form of user interface software. VIs use a variety of methods to simulate natural conversation, including an audio interface and an avatar personality to interact with.

   • 2013 November 27, Roger Cohen, “The past in our future”, in The New York Times‎:

     Devices now track and record our every move and, whether we like it or not, each one of us will bequeath to posterity a virtual avatar, a digital being whose calls, messages, transactions, loves and losses will live on in a vast, unregulated cyberspace. The afterlife has arrived, at least for our cyberbeings.

4. (computing, video games) A simple and static or nearly static digital representation of a person or being in the form of a small digital object, used online as a simulacrum or token of a person or that person's online alter ego, in any digital environment but especially in non-virtual, non-metaversal ones.

   Hyponyms: profile picture, user pic

   Coordinate term: icon

• → Japanese: アバター

• Category:Avatar on Wikimedia Commons.Wikimedia Commons

Borrowed from English, from Sanskrit.

• IPA^(key): (Central) [ə.βəˈtar]
• IPA^(key): (Balearic) [ə.vəˈtar]
• IPA^(key): (Valencian) [a.vaˈtar]

avatar m (plural avatars)

1. (religion) avatar
2. (computer games) avatar

• avarat, tarava

From English avatar, from Sanskrit अवतार (avatāra).

• IPA^(key): /ˈɑʋɑtɑr/, [ˈɑ̝ʋɑ̝t̪ɑ̝r]
• Rhymes: -ɑʋɑtɑr
• Syllabification^(key): a‧va‧tar

avatar

1. avatar (earthly incarnation of a deity, particularly Vishnu)
2. (rare) avatar (physical embodiment of an idea or concept)

   Synonym: ruumiillistuma

3. (rare) avatar (digital representation of a person or being)

   Synonyms: hahmo, virtuaalihahmo

• “avatar”, in Kielitoimiston sanakirja [Dictionary of Contemporary Finnish]‎ (in Finnish) (online dictionary, continuously updated), Kotimaisten kielten keskuksen verkkojulkaisuja 35, Helsinki: Kotimaisten kielten tutkimuskeskus (Institute for the Languages of Finland), 2004–, retrieved 2023-07-02

From Hindustani अवतार / اوتار (avtār), from Sanskrit अवतार (avatāra, “descent of a deity from a heaven”), a compound of अव (ava, “off, away, down”) and the vṛddhi-stem of the root तरति (√tṝ, “to cross”).

• IPA^(key): /a.va.taʁ/

• Audio

  (file)

• Homophone: avatars
• Hyphenation: ava‧tar

avatar m (plural avatars)

1. (Hinduism) avatar
2. (computing) avatar

• “avatar”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Borrowed from English avatar, from Hindustani अवतार / اوتار (avtār), from Sanskrit अवतार (avatāra, “descent of a deity from a heaven”), a compound of अव (ava, “off, away, down”) and the vṛddhi-stem of the root तरति (√tṝ, “to cross”). Doublet of awatara.

• IPA^(key): /avatar/
• Hyphenation: ava‧tar

avatar

1. avatar,
   1. (Hinduism) the incarnation of a deity, particularly Vishnu.

      Synonym: awatara

   2. (computing) a digital representation of a person or being; often, it can take on any of various forms, as a participant chooses. e.g. 3D, animated, photo, sketch of a person or a person's alter ego, sometimes used in a virtual world or virtual chat room.

• “avatar” in Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia, Jakarta: Agency for Language Development and Cultivation – Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology of the Republic of Indonesia, 2016.

• avatara

Unadapted borrowing from English avatar.

avatar m (invariable)

1. avatar (all senses)

• tarava, varata

Borrowed from French avatar, from Sanskrit अवतार (avatāra, “descent of a deity from a heaven”).[1][2] The computing sense comes from English.

• Hyphenation: a‧va‧tar

avatar m (plural avatares)

1. (Hinduism) avatar
2. (computing, video games) avatar

Borrowed from French avatar.

avatar n (plural avataruri)

1. avatar

• IPA^(key): /aʋǎtaːr/
• Hyphenation: a‧va‧tar

avàtār m (Cyrillic spelling ава̀та̄р)

1. avatar

• avatara

• IPA^(key): /abaˈtaɾ/ [a.β̞aˈt̪aɾ]
• Rhymes: -aɾ
• Syllabification: a‧va‧tar

avatar m (plural avatares)

1. avatar
2. (in the plural) vicissitudes, ups and downs

• “avatar”, in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014