advocate
advocate Lexical Profile
advocate Game Scores & Validity
• noun
A person who publicly supports, recommends, or argues in favor of a particular cause, policy, or group of people.
"She has been a tireless advocate for affordable healthcare and public education throughout her career."
A professional lawyer who pleads cases on behalf of clients in a court of law (especially in Scottish, South African, and civil-law jurisdictions).
"The defense advocate cross-examined the prosecution's key witness for over two hours."
• verb
To publicly recommend, support, or argue in favor of a particular policy, cause, or way of doing things.
"Leading pediatricians strongly advocate limiting screen time for young children before bedtime."
Word Nuance & Usage
The noun and verb forms are heteronyms: the noun ends with a reduced schwa sound (/ˈædvəkət/), whereas the verb ends with a long 'a' sound (/ˈædvəkeɪt/). As a verb, it can be used either transitively ('advocate reform') or intransitively with 'for' ('advocate for reform').
Word Origin & Etymology
Borrowed from Old French avocat, from Latin advocatus ('one called to aid' or 'pleader on another's behalf'), the past participle of advocare ('to call to one's aid'), from ad- ('to') + vocare ('to call').