How to Use avocation in a Sentence

avocation

noun
  • He breeds dogs as an avocation.
  • My favorite avocation is reading.
  • What had been an avocation to while away the hours became a lifeline.
    James Sullivan, BostonGlobe.com, 5 Jan. 2023
  • Vice was Monaco’s true draw, no longer just a sport of the idle rich, but an aspirational avocation for the middle class.
    Lauren Groff, The Atlantic, 21 June 2022
  • Though the cover was health, vice was the true draw, no longer just a sport of the idle rich, but an aspirational avocation for ambitious men of the middle class.
    Lauren Groff, The Atlantic, 21 June 2022
  • Some of these half-dozen machines lean toward grand touring as a prime avocation.
    Larry Griffin, Car and Driver, 12 May 2020
  • More than ever she is drawn to her work, both vocation and avocation.
    David Shribman, Los Angeles Times, 26 Aug. 2019
  • Romance is promising, and a new avocation brings hours of pleasure.
    BostonGlobe.com, 13 June 2020
  • Football isn’t just a fall sport to these guys, not just an avocation to put on college applications.
    Austin Murphy, SI.com, 25 Oct. 2017
  • When able, the obvious and best approach is to spend more energy and time engaged with one’s calling, whether through a job or as an avocation.
    Philip Chard, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 13 July 2018
  • The wife’s parents are deer, a grandfather is a fox, and leaping trout, rods, and creels suggest the family’s avocation of fly-fishing.
    Jorge Arango, House Beautiful, 22 May 2019
  • When the family moved to Marshfield, boats and boating became father and son’s avocation.
    Globe Staff, BostonGlobe.com, 18 July 2019
  • Peggy Atkins, who has been an avid gardener for many years, still taps into her avocation on her Lutherville townhouse patio.
    Nelson Coffin, baltimoresun.com, 26 Apr. 2021
  • Nadeem and Saud’s pursuit is a noble one, inspired by their late mother, but as a character study, All That Breathes shows the toll that this all-consuming avocation has taken on them.
    Daniel Fienberg, The Hollywood Reporter, 28 Jan. 2022
  • Art acted as a teenager and resumed his drama avocation as their children grew older.
    M.a.c. Lynch, courant.com, 25 June 2017
  • Infiltrating the Arts In many Western countries, theater is an avocation for elites.
    Patrick Kingsley, New York Times, 27 Mar. 2018
  • Benson earns his living as a salesman for an employment screening firm, but hunting is his avocation.
    Philip Caputo, Field & Stream, 22 Nov. 2020
  • Finally, the chance to learn something new from a person with love and passion for her vocation and avocation is what community and recovery is all about.
    Michael Alpiner, Forbes, 26 Feb. 2021
  • While her profession is acting, her avocation always has been art -- as a patron, a collector, a former gallery owner and co-founder with her late husband of the Musee Boribana in Dakar, Senegal.
    Susan Langenhennig, NOLA.com, 20 Dec. 2017
  • Bill was active in local politics and enjoyed his major avocation, the fire service.
    courant.com, 22 Apr. 2018
  • The couple had a lucrative avocation: finding young artists destined for greatness.
    Katya Kazakina, Bloomberg.com, 10 May 2017
  • To help prepare them, the ball’s year-long Mentor Program matches each girl with a past deb who has attended the same college or university and shares an interest in the same profession or avocation.
    Joanne Davidson, The Denver Post, 24 Feb. 2017
  • Brothers Ben and Justin Cumming of Lunenburg also have a family connection to thank for their fishing avocation.
    Brion O’Connor, BostonGlobe.com, 8 Aug. 2019
  • John Freeman, one of the engineers of the new reservoir system, used to say that engineering was his avocation, insurance his vocation.
    Robert Sullivan, The New Republic, 10 Nov. 2022
  • In 1998, her avocation became her profession by dint of a bad (self-administered) haircut.
    Vogue, 10 Sep. 2017
  • When the coronavirus pandemic hit hard and restaurants were shut down, waiter Julio Alvarado’s micro farming went from avocation to vocation in a matter of four months.
    Rod Stafford Hagwood, sun-sentinel.com, 24 Sep. 2020
  • What had been a hobby, a pleasant avocation, became something more serious.
    Globe Columnist, BostonGlobe.com, 9 Oct. 2022
  • Now Mitchell-Delmotte, 39, a singer/songwriter by avocation, is giving back in an unusual way — by releasing an album.
    Diane Bellcolumnist, San Diego Union-Tribune, 25 Jan. 2023
  • Speechwriting is more a profession than an avocation now.
    Michael Kazin, New York Times, 2 Nov. 2017
  • Benjamin Franklin, a printer by vocation, a scientist by avocation, leaned on cleverness, developing measures that are still in use.
    IEEE Spectrum, 29 July 2023

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'avocation.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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