acceleration
Americannoun
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accelerations
plural
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the act of accelerating; increase of speed or velocity.
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a change in velocity.
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Mechanics. the time rate of change of velocity with respect to magnitude or direction; the derivative of velocity with respect to time.
noun
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the act of accelerating or the state of being accelerated
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a. the rate of increase of speed or the rate of change of velocity
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a. the power to accelerate
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The rate of change of the velocity of a moving body. An increase in the magnitude of the velocity of a moving body (an increase in speed) is called a positive acceleration; a decrease in speed is called a negative acceleration. Acceleration, like velocity, is a vector quantity, so any change in the direction of a moving body is also an acceleration. A moving body that follows a curved path, even when its speed remains constant, is undergoing acceleration.
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See more at gravity relativity
Discover More
The most familiar kind of acceleration is a change in the speed of an object. An object that stays at the same speed but changes direction, however, is also being accelerated. (See force.)
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of acceleration
First recorded in 1525–35, acceleration is from the Latin word accelerātiōn- (stem of accelerātiō ). See accelerate, -ion
Explanation
Acceleration is the act of increasing speed. When you buy a sports car, you want one that has great acceleration, so it can go from zero to 60 miles an hour in no time. Acceleration comes from the Latin word accelerationem, which means "a hastening." When you hasten, you hurry, so acceleration is a speeding-up. Maybe you are walking to an appointment and realize you will be late. You pick up your pace — that's acceleration. If the rain on a stormy day begins to come down faster, that too is acceleration. As you can see, acceleration isn't just for cars.
Vocabulary lists containing acceleration
Automobiles
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Word Generation Science - Energy
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Force and Motion (Mechanics) - Middle School
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Chew illustrated the extent of the bearish acceleration in sentiment shift in an update to his equity markets positioning model published on Monday.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 4, 2026
Its acceleration, however, has received far less scrutiny, even though it directly contributes to the fireball's rapid expansion.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 3, 2026
Because the most powerful acceleration remains concentrated along the boundary, the overall effect changes only slightly depending on whether the nuclei collide directly or strike each other at an angle.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 3, 2026
A research team led by Fudan University physicists Yu-Gang Ma and Xu-Guang Huang set out to map how acceleration forms and changes inside quark-gluon plasma.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 3, 2026
It pierced the aluminum floor of the cabin; there was a shrill yell, and the machine went rocketing up into the air with all the acceleration that its super-charger could give it.
From "Brave New World" by Aldous Huxley
For aging relatives who are still driving, family members can receive reports of sudden stops or fast accelerations as well as a notification of a crash.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 21, 2026
It included the dates of 640 trips, their start and end times, the distance driven and an accounting of any speeding, hard braking or sharp accelerations.
From New York Times ● Mar. 11, 2024
Inertial measurement unit data is processed to determine hard braking, hard accelerations and hard turns and GPS data.
From Science Daily ● Feb. 29, 2024
In a statement, the US Bureau of Economic Analysis said the increase reflects "accelerations in consumer spending, private inventory investment, and federal government spending" among other factors.
From BBC ● Oct. 26, 2023
We are comfortable with accelerations of 1 g; we have grown up with 1 g.
From "Cosmos" by Carl Sagan
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
