# avatar

Pronunciation: US say "AV-uh-tar" /ˈæv.ə.tɑɹ/; UK/AUS say "AV-uh-tah" /ˈæv.ə.tɑː(ɹ)/

## Noun

1. A simple, static digital image that represents a person online, often used as a profile token outside virtual worlds.
   - Simple: A small, still picture that stands for you online, like a profile photo.
   - _He changed his avatar to a plain black square in protest._
   - _Most users on the board keep the same avatar for years._
2. A complex, animated digital model that represents a person in a virtual world, online chat room, or metaverse, controlled as that person's online alter ego.
   - Simple: A moving digital figure you control inside an online virtual world or game.
   - _He spent hours customizing his avatar before entering the virtual chat room._
   - _Players guide their avatars through sprawling three-dimensional worlds._
3. An incarnation of a deity in bodily form, particularly one of the god Vishnu.
   - Simple: A god who comes to earth in a living body, especially the Hindu god Vishnu.
   - _Rama is revered as an avatar of Vishnu who came to defeat a demon king._
   - _Devotees celebrate the descent of each avatar with festivals and prayers._
4. The embodiment of an idea or concept; a person or thing in which an abstract idea takes concrete or personified form.
   - Simple: A person or thing that stands for an idea or quality in a clear, living way.
   - _The general became the avatar of national resistance during the war._
   - _Critics called the novel's hero an avatar of pure ambition._

## Origin

First used around 1784, it was borrowed from Hindustani avtār, from Sanskrit avatāra, meaning the "descent of a deity from a heaven": a compound of ava ("off, away, down") and a form of the root tṝ ("to cross"). The computing sense grew out of 1980s video games such as Habitat (1985) and the Ultima series, and was later popularized by Neal Stephenson's novel Snow Crash (1992).

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/avatar (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).