acceleration

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

How to pronounce acceleration (audio)

, (ˌ)ak- \

Definition of acceleration

1a : 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 Up to speed: The acceleration was pretty strong, unsurprisingly. — Tribune News Service, cleveland, "2019 Toyota Sequoia? An SUV so solid and unchanging, it’s almost petrified (auto review)," 17 Nov. 2019 Up to speed: The acceleration was pretty strong, unsurprisingly. — Scott Sturgis, chicagotribune.com, "2019 Toyota Sequoia? An SUV so solid and unchanging, it’s almost petrified," 15 Nov. 2019 Notably, partial compositing is enabled in Firefox on Windows for non-WebRender, non-Nvidia systems on reasonably recent versions of Windows, and on all systems where hardware acceleration is off. — Jim Salter, Ars Technica, "Firefox 70 brings Enhanced Tracking Protection and longer battery life," 23 Oct. 2019 That acceleration was about half a second quicker than the regular Leaf, despite the Plus being about 340 pounds heavier. — Jeff Yip, Houston Chronicle, "Nissan’s Leaf Plus adds power, sports 200-mile range," 27 Sep. 2019 Quick acceleration over short distances is relatively easy to achieve in an electric car, but there's much more to being a performance car. — Peter Valdes-dapena, CNN, "Tesla takes on Porsche with superfast Plaid Mode," 18 Sep. 2019 Blood acceleration was 26% slower, peak blood flow (the maximum blood flow through the vessels) was reduced by 18%, and oxygen levels in the vessels dropped by 20%. — Samantha Lauriello, Health.com, "How Do E-Cigarettes Change Blood Vessels? A New Study Has the Answer," 21 Aug. 2019 To see such acceleration is startling, and so is this: The program — called the Math Academy — was designed by parents, who are usually told to butt out of school curriculum decisions. — Jay Mathews, Washington Post, "Why are so many 8th-graders taking AP Calculus at this school district?," 6 July 2019 Pros: The scooter almost takes up an entire travel lane, is incredibly sturdy, easy to operate and has good acceleration, if there’s juice in the tank. — Andrew Theen | The Oregonian/oregonlive, oregonlive, "Portland’s e-scooter unicorns: We test drove the 2 oddest devices on our streets," 16 Oct. 2019

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'acceleration.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

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Learn More about acceleration

Dictionary Entries near acceleration

accelerated amortization

acceleration coefficient

acceleration lane

acceleration of gravity

Statistics for acceleration

Last Updated

11 Dec 2019

Cite this Entry

“Acceleration.” The Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster Inc., https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/acceleration?pronunciation&lang=en_us&dir=a&file=accele05. Accessed 13 December 2019.

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More Definitions for acceleration

acceleration

ac·cel·er·a·tion | \ ak-ˌse-lə-ˈrā-shən

\

Kids Definition of acceleration

: the act or process of speeding up

acceleration

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

\

Medical Definition of acceleration

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

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easily led, controlled, or managed

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