The adjective immaculate describes things that are spotlessly clean or perfectly neat. It’s the adjective to reach for when clean simply isn’t enough. If you go to a friend’s house and their kitchen (inexplicably) has nary a dishtowel out of place nor speck of dust in view, it might qualify as immaculate. Immaculate is one of a handful of prefixed words in English that is better known than its unadorned counterpart: have you ever heard something described as maculate? The odds are no, but maculate is a perfectly fine and real adjective meaning “spotted; stained.”

To avoid something, like a dangerous or undesirable situation, is to keep clear of it or to prevent it from happening. The verb evade is a bit more cunning. To evade something is to get around it or to get out of it, usually by a degree of trickery or cleverness. This verb is most commonly used to talk about getting out of paying taxes, getting around legal consequences, or getting out of answering a question directly. This term’s earliest uses in English had to do with escaping literal pursuit or attack; while this specific sense has waned, the notion of escaping something undesirable remains a useful differentiator.