Shun is to notice something, unsually that you don`t like or want to deal with (it can be a person) so you just sort of ignore it, or pretend it or the person doesn’t exist. Example. Some churches say to „shun“ members who leave, not talk to them and ignore them. Avoid is just stay away from something unpleasant (I avoided the accident on the freeway and the traffic jam it caused, by taking a side road). Halt means just to stop. He was halted by police. The word has a kind of limited use. You can halt someone, but only when they are in motion. Halt is often used with other words to show you`re bringing an end to something (not in motion). Like, „to put a halt on“ something. Like he put a halt on his drinking. You can`t say „he halted drinking.“ You can halt a horse, but most would say „bring the horse to a halt.“ Halt usually needs a little more to it to make it work, but if I said it it would only be like to „pull someone over“ (like when driving in a car). The police might make you halt for a moment for something. Based off is very common. It means coming out of something, being the result of something. A new TV series can be based off an older successful one for example. So, you could say „that show is based of the XYZ show.“ Being based off something just means having a foundation in something, or having gotten a start because of something that laid a groundwork of sorts for something.