From Middle English avowen, from Old French avouer, from Latin advoco, from ad ("to") + vocare ("to call").

• IPA: /əˈvaʊ/

avow (avows, present participle avowing; simple past and past participle avowed)

1. (transitive) To declare openly and boldly, as something believed to be right; to own, acknowledge or confess frankly.
   • 1858, Henry Stephens Randall, The Life of Thomas Jefferson, volume 1, page 461:

     […] in 1786, and for some period later, there were few, if any, prominent Americans, who avowed themselves in favor of broadly democratic systems.

2. (transitive) To bind or devote by a vow.
3. (legal) To acknowledge and justify, as an act done. See avowry.
   • 1765–1769, William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England, (please specify |book=I to IV), Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] Clarendon Press, →OCLC ↗:

     avow himself the accomplice of his crimes

• disavow

• advocate
• avowable
• avowably
• avowal
• avowance
• avowed
• avowedly
• avower
• reavow
• unavowable
• unavowed

• French: avouer, confesser
• German: bekennen, gestehen
• Portuguese: admitir
• Russian: признава́ть
• Spanish: confesar, admitir, reconocer

avow

1. (obsolete) avowal
   • 1697, Virgil, “The Twelfth Book of the Æneis”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC ↗:

     without thy Knowledge and Avow