accelerate
verb /əkˈseləreɪt/
/əkˈseləreɪt/
Verb Forms
| present simple I / you / we / they accelerate | /əkˈseləreɪt/ /əkˈseləreɪt/ |
| he / she / it accelerates | /əkˈseləreɪts/ /əkˈseləreɪts/ |
| past simple accelerated | /əkˈseləreɪtɪd/ /əkˈseləreɪtɪd/ |
| past participle accelerated | /əkˈseləreɪtɪd/ /əkˈseləreɪtɪd/ |
| -ing form accelerating | /əkˈseləreɪtɪŋ/ /əkˈseləreɪtɪŋ/ |
- [intransitive, transitive] to happen faster or earlier; to make something happen faster or earlier
- Inflation continues to accelerate.
- accelerate something Exposure to the sun can accelerate the ageing process.
Extra ExamplesTopics Change, cause and effectc1- Government policy has greatly accelerated the decline of the small farmer.
- Population growth accelerated only after 1750.
- The epidemic is accelerating dramatically.
- The pace of change has begun to accelerate.
- factors which may accelerate inflation
- rapidly accelerating social change
- Environmental factors can accelerate the development of certain cancers.
- He vowed to intensify efforts to accelerate the structural reform of the economy.
Oxford Collocations Dictionaryadverb- dramatically
- greatly
- rapidly
- …
- [intransitive] (of a vehicle or person) to start to go faster
- The runners accelerated smoothly around the bend.
- The car accelerated to overtake me.
- The car purred into life and accelerated away.
WordfinderTopics Physics and chemistryc1, Transport by car or lorryc1- accelerate
- brake
- car
- commute
- driving
- licence
- motorist
- road
- road tax
- traffic
Oxford Collocations Dictionaryadverb- hard
- quickly
- smoothly
- …
opposite decelerate
Word Originearly 16th cent. (in the sense to make something happen faster): from Latin accelerat- ‘hastened’, from the verb accelerare, from ad- ‘towards’ + celer ‘swift’.