accelerate

verb

ac·cel·er·ate ik-ˈse-lə-ˌrāt

ak-

accelerated; accelerating

Synonyms of accelerate next

intransitive verb

: to move faster : to gain speed

The car slowly accelerated.

The pace of change has accelerated in recent months.

: to progress from grade to grade more rapidly than usual : to follow a speeded-up educational program

transitive verb

: to bring about at an earlier time

Circumstances accelerated their departure.

: to cause to move faster

accelerated his steps

also : to cause to undergo acceleration

: to hasten the progress or development of

accelerate our efforts

: increase

accelerate food production

: to enable (a student) to complete a course in less than usual time

: to speed up (something, such as a course of study)

Examples of accelerate in a Sentence

She stepped on the gas and the car accelerated. The plane accelerated down the runway. She stepped on the gas and accelerated the car. He says that cutting taxes will help to accelerate economic growth. The rate of economic growth has continued to accelerate.

Recent Examples on the Web The hype over such tools has accelerated worries over its potential societal harms and prompted calls for more transparency in how the data behind the new products is collected and used. —

Mary Clare Jalonick and Matt O'Brien, Anchorage Daily News, 13 Sep. 2023 The two players exchanged ground stroke after ground stroke, the pace of the ball accelerating as the point went on. —

Louisa Thomas, The New Yorker, 11 Sep. 2023 Northern Ireland just had its wettest July on record—potentially accelerating the runoff of nutrients into bodies of water including Lough Neagh, says Reid. —

Chris Baraniuk, WIRED, 11 Sep. 2023 This pathway encompasses accelerating change away from fossil fuel reliance, deploying new low-carbon energy sources, improving energy efficiency, and encouraging more sustainable consumption habits. —

Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, Foreign Affairs, 11 Sep. 2023 The Alliance of Nonprofit News Outlets, a collective of 19 news agencies and growing, formed in reaction to the accelerating disappearance of news outlets across the country — and the struggle of small nonprofits like theirs to survive. —

Amanda Milkovits, BostonGlobe.com, 8 Sep. 2023 The latter has seen Disney funnel its marquee efforts away from linear TV and that shift has helped accelerate cord-cutting. —

Nina Metz, Chicago Tribune, 7 Sep. 2023 According to the team, intense star formation in the universe’s early days may have played a role in accelerating the development of the magnetic fields and that the fields can influence how later generations of stars will eventually form. —

Laura Baisas, Popular Science, 7 Sep. 2023 With the electric motor's ready torque (199 pound-feet at 400 rpm), the PHEV's advantage is more pronounced in the suburban slog—accelerating from 30 to 50 mph takes 2.7 seconds to the I-6's 3.6 clicks. —

Joe Lorio, Car and Driver, 1 Sep. 2023 See More

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

Word History

Etymology

borrowed from Latin accelerātus, past participle of accelerāre "to add speed to, hasten the occurrence of, go quickly," from ad- ad- + celerāre "to hasten," verbal derivative of celer "swift, speedy," perhaps going back to *keli-li-/ri-, derivative from the Indo-European base of Greek kélomai, kelésthai "urge, exhort," kelēt-, kélēs "swift horse, charger"

First Known Use

circa 1522, in the meaning defined at transitive sense 1

Time Traveler

The first known use of accelerate was circa 1522

See more words from the same year