accelerate
Meanings
- To cause to move faster; to quicken the motion of; to add to the speed of.
- To quicken the natural or ordinary progression or process of.
- To cause a change of velocity.
- To hasten, as the occurrence of an event.
- To enable a student to finish a course of study in less than normal time.
- To become faster; to begin to move more quickly.
- Grow; increase.
- Accelerated; quickened; hastened; hurried.
Pronunciation
Word forms
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₂éd Proto-Italic *ad Proto-Italic *ad- Latin ad- Proto-Indo-European *kel-der. Latin celer Proto-Indo-European *-h₂ Proto-Indo-European *-éh₂ Proto-Indo-European *-yéti Proto-Indo-European *-eh₂yéti Proto-Italic *-āō Latin -ō Latin celerō Latin accelerō Latin accelerātuslbor. ▲ Latin accelerō Proto-Indo-European *-tis Proto-Indo-European *-Hō Proto-Indo-European *-tiHō Proto-Italic *-tiō Latin -tiō Latin accelerātiōder. English accelerationbf. English accelerate First attested in the 1520s. Either from Latin accelerātus, perfect passive participle of accelerō (“to accelerate, hasten”) (see -ate (verb-forming suffix) and -ate (adjective-forming suffix)), formed from ad + celerō (“to hasten”), which is from celer (“quick”) (see celerity), or back-formation from acceleration.