accelerate
Americanverb (used with object)
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to cause faster or greater activity, development, progress, advancement, etc., in.
to accelerate economic growth.
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to hasten the occurrence of.
to accelerate the fall of a government.
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Mechanics. to change the velocity of (a body) or the rate of (motion); cause to undergo acceleration.
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to reduce the time required for (a course of study) by intensifying the work, eliminating detail, etc.
verb (used without object)
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to move or go faster; increase in speed.
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to progress or develop faster.
verb
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to go, occur, or cause to go or occur more quickly; speed up
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(tr) to cause to happen sooner than expected
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(tr) to increase the velocity of (a body, reaction, etc); cause acceleration
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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overaccelerateverb
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reaccelerateverb
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accelerableadjective
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accelerativeadjective
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self-acceleratingadjective
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unacceleratedadjective
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acceleratedlyadverb
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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acceleratesimple
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acceleratessimple
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have acceleratedperfect
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has acceleratedperfect
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am acceleratingprogressive
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are acceleratingprogressive
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is acceleratingprogressive
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have been acceleratingperfect progressive
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has been acceleratingperfect progressive
Past
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acceleratedsimple
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had acceleratedperfect
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was acceleratingprogressive
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were acceleratingprogressive
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had been acceleratingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of accelerate
First recorded in 1515–25; from Latin accelerātus “sped up,” past participle of accelerāre “to speed up,” from ac- ac- + celerāre “to hasten, hurry” (from celer “swift”)
Explanation
Accelerate means to speed up. A car accelerates when you step on the gas. You can accelerate the process of getting a visa if you happen to know someone who works in the consulate. The fastest Amtrak trains are called the Acela line, a made-up word intended to suggest accelerate and therefore communicate that these trains are fast. If you are standing close to one when it zooms by, you may find yourself having an accelerated heart rate — they move pretty fast!
Vocabulary lists containing accelerate
Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry
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Holes
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Commonly Misspelled Words, List 2
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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:
John Reed, Johnson & Johnson’s executive vice president of innovative medicine research and development, said by working with Sail the company would aim to accelerate the development of innovative therapies.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 29, 2026
“AI is also helping to accelerate this evolution and shape the way work gets done at Visa.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 29, 2026
What we do know is that medical experts warn of extreme risk in their use—there’s some suspicion that at least one of the peptides might accelerate tumor growth.
From Slate ● Jul. 29, 2026
In the interview, he spoke against banning foreign open-source models and advocated government policies that would accelerate development of the technology in the U.S.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 29, 2026
In the absence of this protein, blood refuses to clot—and even a small nick or wound can accelerate into a lethal bleeding crisis.
From "The Gene" by Siddhartha Mukherjee
That may suggest that credit investors are demanding more protection as debt issuance increases and capital spending accelerates, or that they are simply reassessing the credit risk associated with these increasingly capital-intensive business models.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 28, 2026
"Post-traumatic osteoarthritis is driven in part by persistent inflammation that limits tissue repair and accelerates joint degeneration," Roy adds.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 12, 2026
As telecommunications giant AT&T accelerates its push to retire landline service to about 184,000 households and 15,000 businesses across the state, hundreds of Californians have voiced alarm in public comments.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 10, 2026
Now two veterans of those big labs are wagering they can outflank their former employers by making and distributing AI that accelerates AI research for everyone.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 24, 2026
Today, the number two train accelerates to over 40 miles an hour as it rumbles toward the Chambers Street express stop.
From "The Tipping Point" by Malcolm Gladwell
We live saturated in opinion, reaction and digital noise, a culture that turns other people into content: flattened, accelerated, easy to dismiss.
From Salon ● Jul. 30, 2026
UC faculty leaders have accelerated plans to review SAT/ACT testing and high school A-G course requirements.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 29, 2026
Executives later said the prolonged legal battle hampered the company’s ability to compete, particularly as streaming rivals accelerated their investments.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 27, 2026
LVMH, the world's top luxury group, said Monday that sales growth accelerated in the second quarter as it beat analyst expectations with stable net profit in the first half of the year.
From Barron's ● Jul. 27, 2026
“Your heart rate is accelerated and you're sweating. Your adrenaline is high. All indicators of stress,” it replied.
From "The Marvellers" by Dhonielle Clayton
It is accelerating its push into robotics, advancing the proof-of-concept feasibility test for its CLOiD home robot—designed to autonomously handle household chores such as cooking, cleaning and laundry—to 2026 from 2027.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 30, 2026
"AI is accelerating our core business today, powering our next generation of products, and opening the door to entirely new enterprise opportunities," chief executive Mark Zuckerberg said in a statement.
From Barron's ● Jul. 29, 2026
Chief executive Mark Zuckerberg said the company's AI spending was "accelerating every part of our core business" and that it planned to start selling the technology to other businesses.
From BBC ● Jul. 29, 2026
PayPal has been trying to cut costs through restructuring its business and accelerating artificial intelligence adoption.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 29, 2026
Goldman Sachs was next, and did not merely let go, but turned and made a big bet against the subprime market—further accelerating the balloon’s fatal ascent.
From "The Big Short" by Michael Lewis
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.
