overwordExplorer
FRENCH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

avoir.

to have; to own; to possess; to get

5 characters2 syllables approx.Français language

Meaning & usage

verb/a.vwaʁ/[a.waɾ]Louisiana[a.vwaɾ]Louisiana

  1. to have; to own; to possess; to get

    transitive
    J'ai beaucoup d'abonnés.
    J'aimerais bien avoir 20 dollars.

  2. to have (to experience or suffer from a state or condition)

    transitive
    avoir des relations sexuelles
    avoir faim

  3. to have (an age)

    transitive
    Elle a 19 ans.

  4. used to form the compound tenses of most verbs, such as the perfect and pluperfect.

    auxiliary
    J'ai parlé.
    Qu'est-ce que vous m'avez fait ?

  5. to have (to), must

    auxiliary
    J'ai à vous parler.
    Nous avons beaucoup à faire.

  6. (chiefly in se faire avoir) to have (to trick; to con)

    idiomatic
    Tu t'es fait avoir.
Where this word comes from

Inherited from Middle French avoir, from Old French avoir, aveir, aver, from Latin habēre (“have, hold, possess”), probably from a Proto-Italic *habēō or *haβēō, possibly ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *gʰh₁bʰ- (“to grab, to take”). Influenced and reinforced by similar (yet etymologically unrelated) verbs in Germanic; compare Frankish *habbjan (“to have”), Old High German habēn (“to have”), Old Norse hafa (“to have”), Gothic 𐌷𐌰𐌱𐌰𐌽 (haban, “to have”). See closer cognates in regional languages in France: Angevin avouèr, Bourbonnais-Berrichon avoér, Bourguignon aivoi, Champenois aouâr, Corsican avè, Franco-Provençal avêr, Franc-Comtois aivoi, Gallo avair, Lorrain ahoir, Norman avaer, Occitan aver, Picard avoèr. Further cognates include: Italian avere, Portuguese haver, Romanian avea, avere, and Sardinian (Campidanese airi, Logudorese àere), Sicilian aviri, Spanish haber, and English aver (borrowed via Old French).

noun/a.vwaʁ/[a.waɾ]Louisiana[a.vwaɾ]Louisiana

  1. asset, possession

    masculine
Where this word comes from

Inherited from Middle French avoir, from Old French avoir, aveir, aver, from Latin habēre (“have, hold, possess”), probably from a Proto-Italic *habēō or *haβēō, possibly ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *gʰh₁bʰ- (“to grab, to take”). Influenced and reinforced by similar (yet etymologically unrelated) verbs in Germanic; compare Frankish *habbjan (“to have”), Old High German habēn (“to have”), Old Norse hafa (“to have”), Gothic 𐌷𐌰𐌱𐌰𐌽 (haban, “to have”). See closer cognates in regional languages in France: Angevin avouèr, Bourbonnais-Berrichon avoér, Bourguignon aivoi, Champenois aouâr, Corsican avè, Franco-Provençal avêr, Franc-Comtois aivoi, Gallo avair, Lorrain ahoir, Norman avaer, Occitan aver, Picard avoèr. Further cognates include: Italian avere, Portuguese haver, Romanian avea, avere, and Sardinian (Campidanese airi, Logudorese àere), Sicilian aviri, Spanish haber, and English aver (borrowed via Old French).

FROM WORD TO NAME

Try it on your idea.

avoir has 5 characters. Say it out loud, try it alongside a description of your project, and see whether its meaning fits what you want to create.

avoir studioavoir workshello, avoir

These are naming prompts. Meanings and pronunciation can vary; existing brand and domain uses have not been checked.

Explore the name generator

A word with a source.

Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.