An avatar is an electronic image (as in a video game) that represents, and can be manipulated by, a computer user. Avatar can also refer to the embodiment of something (such as a concept or philosophy) often in a person, or to an incarnation of a deity—especially a Hindu deity, such as Vishnu.

// Before they started playing the game, Maeve and Sanaa customized their avatars.

// She has come to be regarded as an avatar of charity and concern for the poor.

See the entry >

“‘I am crying,’ my editor said when I connected with her via FaceTime on my Apple Vision Pro. ‘You look like a computer man.’ What made her choke with laughter was ... the digital avatar that the device had generated when I had pointed its curved, glass front at my face during setup. I couldn’t see the me that she saw, but apparently it was uncanny. You look handsome and refined, she told me, but also fake.” — Ian Bogost, The Atlantic, 3 Feb. 2024

Water. Earth. Fire. Air. These are just some of the elements and environments that video game avatars—the images representing and controlled by players—have faced since the days of Space Invaders, to say nothing of today's Pandora’s box of assorted baddies. Avatar comes from the Sanskrit word avatāraḥ, meaning “descent.” When avatar first appeared in English in the late 18th century, it referred to the descent of a deity to the earth—typically, the incarnation in earthly form of Vishnu or another Hindu deity. It later came to refer to any incarnation in human form, and then to any embodiment (such as the embodiment of a concept or philosophy), whether or not in the form of a person. All of these senses of avatar are still in use today, joined by the more recent computing/gaming sense, which may refer to “you” embodied as a mustachioed Italian plumber, for example, even if you are not, in fact, a mustachioed Italian plumber.