a·vow

(ə-vou′)

tr.v. a·vowed, a·vow·ing, a·vows

1. To acknowledge or declare openly and unashamedly: avowed their faith in the electoral process.

2. To state positively; declare: "Various church councils have avowed that evolution poses no threat to supernatural belief" (Frederick C. Crews).

[Middle English avowen, from Old French avouer, from Latin advocāre, to call upon; see advocate.]

a·vow′a·ble adj.

a·vow′a·bly adv.

a·vow′ed·ly (-ĭd-lē) adv.

a·vow′er n.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Noun	1.	avower - someone who admits or acknowledges openly and boldly communicator - a person who communicates with others
	2.	avower - someone who claims to speak the truth; "a bold asserter"; "a declarer of his intentions"; "affirmers of traditional doctrine"; "an asseverator of strong convictions"; "an avower of his own great intelligence" affirmer, asserter, asseverator, declarer communicator - a person who communicates with others postulator - someone who assumes or takes something for granted as the basis of an argument

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References in periodicals archive

Often a jury of twelve, six from each side, was empanelled to decide the matter or a decision could be achieved on the warden's oath or the oath or 'avower' of some prominent man effectively acting as the defendant's guarantor.

Rough justice and violence at tense border meetings

We begin by showing the rather unsavory consequences of the current trend toward worshipping at complexity's altar and thus becoming a member of the "Cult of Complexity." Next, we question whether the world was ever quite as simple as today's avowers of complexity suggest, thus revealing the notion of today's unprecedented complexity to be descriptively false.

The complexity trap

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