acceleration

noun

ac·​cel·​er·​a·​tion ik-ˌse-lə-ˈrā-shən 

(ˌ)ak-

1

a

: the act or process of moving faster or happening more quickly : the act or process of accelerating

rapid acceleration

the acceleration of economic growth

b

: ability to accelerate

a car with good acceleration

2

physics : the rate of change of velocity with respect to time

broadly : change of velocity

Examples of acceleration in a Sentence

The car delivers quick acceleration.

There has been some acceleration in economic growth.

There has been an acceleration in economic growth.

Recent Examples on the Web

Meanwhile, the processor’s NPU delivers over 50 TOPS of AI throughput, enabling on-device acceleration for light duty gen AI models, image enhancement, video conference background removal and tracking, voice transcription, etc. —Dave Altavilla, Forbes.com, 4 June 2025

The analyst highlighted certain positives in Home Depot’s Q1 performance, including stabilizing traffic, improving shrink (inventory lost due to theft or other reasons) rates, and acceleration in online sales growth to 8% after staying lower than 5% since Q3 FY22. —Tipranks.com Staff, CNBC, 1 June 2025

But what were his motivations for the sculptural cut that reduced the body by a third, literally disabling all of the fetish’s functions except for those of its primary feature, the design, thereby intensifying it, endowing it even with an imaginary, almost futuristic acceleration? —Benjamin H. D. Buchloh, Artforum, 1 June 2025

This acceleration follows high-level diplomatic and military exchanges, including Pakistan Air Chief Marshal Zaheer Ahmad Babar's visit to Beijing and General Zhang Youxia's trip to Islamabad. —Amir Daftari, MSNBC Newsweek, 23 May 2025

Word History

Etymology

borrowed from Anglo-French & Latin; Anglo-French acceleratiun, borrowed from Latin accelerātiōn-, accelerātiō, from accelerāre "to accelerate" + -tiōn-, -tiō, suffix of action nouns

First Known Use

15th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1a

Phrases Containing acceleration

• acceleration of gravity
• acceleration principle
• angular acceleration

Rhymes for acceleration

• abbreviation
• abomination
• accentuation
• accommodation
• accreditation
• acculturation
• accumulation
• acetylation
• adjudication
• administration
• adulteration
• affiliation

Kids Definition

acceleration

noun

ac·​cel·​er·​a·​tion ik-ˌsel-ə-ˈrā-shən 

ak-

1

: the act or process of accelerating : the state of being accelerated

2

: the rate of change of velocity with respect to time

also : change in velocity

Medical Definition

acceleration

noun

ac·​cel·​er·​a·​tion ik-ˌsel-ə-ˈrā-shən, (ˌ)ak- 

1

: the act or process of accelerating : the state of being accelerated

2

: change of velocity

also : the rate of this change

3

: advancement in mental growth or achievement beyond the average for one's age