Vanguard can mean:

• A vanguard is the forward division in an army.
• HMS Vanguard was a British battleship.
• Project Vanguard was an early U.S. satellite program.
• The Vanguard Group is a large American investment management company.
• The Vanguard Progressive Unionist Party was a hardline unionist political party in Northern Ireland during the 1970s.
• The Daily Vanguard is a student-run newspaper at Portland State University.
• Computer and video games named Vanguard:
  • the shooter game Vanguard (1981) and its sequel Vanguard II (1984)
  • Vanguard: Saga of Heroes is a massively multiplayer role-playing game

See avant-garde for a metaphorical use of this term, meaning new or experimental cultural and artistic movements.