Hello The word "avert" means to prevent or ward off (an undesirable occurrence). For example, "We tried to avert our thoughts from our massive financial problems." To "avoid" something means to miss it. For example, "The driver of the car swerved out of the way, to avoid an accident." But avert also means “prevent” or “ward off,” a sense it shares with avoid. However, while "avert" implies active effort to stop something from happening, "avoid" often suggests keeping away from or refraining from something rather than stoping it from happening. I hope that helps!

Well, I'd guess we avoid something by moving out of its way, but we avert something by taking steps to prevent it :) They are so close in meaning, though ... I suspect "avoid" is more often used. I'll check that ... https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/avert https://www.lexico.com/definition/avoid So, if you see a crash about to happen and you step out of the way, you have avoided it but not averted it. If you see a crash about to happen and you take steps to prevent it, you have averted the crash ... https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=avoid%2C+avert&year_start=1800&year_end=2000&corpus=15&smoothing=3&share=&direct_url=t1%3B%2Cavoid%3B%2Cc0%3B.t1%3B%2Cavert%3B%2Cc0#t1%3B%2Cavoid%3B%2Cc0%3B.t1%3B%2Cavert%3B%2Cc0