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accelerate

/əkˈseləreɪt//əkˈseləreɪt/·verb
to speed up — to increase the rate at which something moves or happens
Fig. 1 — The light goes green, and the dial tells the physics straight: the needle climbs at a perfectly steady rate — speed rising by the same amount every second — while the readout counts up in equal steps, 21, 42, 63, on and on.
01Definition

To accelerate is to increase the rate of something already in motion — a car, a trend, a decline. The word cares about the change in speed, not the speed itself: a slow thing that is speeding up is accelerating; a fast thing holding steady is not. From Latin celer, 'swift' (the root of celerity), with ad- pushing toward it. It runs both ways grammatically — the economy accelerates, or policy accelerates the economy — and both ways morally: growth can accelerate, but so can erosion, debt, and a surge in cases.

02In use
  • iWarmer seas accelerate the melting at the glacier's base.
  • iiThe new visa rules should accelerate hiring, and the surge in applications suggests they already have.
  • iiiOnce a rumour gains momentum online, sharing tools accelerate it beyond recall.
03Collocations
  • accelerate the process
  • accelerate growth
  • accelerate the pace of
  • accelerate a decline
  • an accelerated program

Family acceleration (noun) · accelerator (noun) · accelerated (adjective)

04Relations

=hasten, expedite, quicken, spur, speed up

≠decelerate, delay

06TOEFL & IELTS

A Task 1 trend-verb upgrade: 'the rise accelerated after 2010' says in one word what 'increased more quickly' says in three, and the pattern works for falls too — declines accelerate. Pronunciation is the trap the exam hears: the double c is /ks/ — ak-SEL-uh-rate, stress on the second syllable, never 'a-sell-erate'. Grammar note: it is both transitive and intransitive, so growth accelerates and policies accelerate growth. The noun acceleration doubles as the physics term for the rate of change of speed.

07Asked
Is it 'ak-SEL-uh-rate' or 'a-SELL-uh-rate'?
ak-SEL-uh-rate — the double c splits into two sounds, /ks/, so the first syllable ends in a /k/ before -CEL- takes the stress: /əkˈseləreɪt/. Dropping the /k/ ('a-SELL-erate') is the classic slip; front-stressing 'AK-selerate' the rarer one. The family then shifts stress as it grows: acceleration lands on -RAY-, ak-sel-uh-RAY-shun, while accelerator keeps -SEL-.
What does accelerate actually mean?
To raise the rate of something already underway. The nuance the scene above performs is that acceleration is about change of speed: the needle climbs the dial at a steady rate — speed growing by the same amount each second — while the car's progress stretches, covering more road every second than the last. Grammatically the verb runs both ways — 'the car accelerated' (intransitive) and 'the driver accelerated the car', 'reforms accelerated growth' (transitive) — a flexibility exams quietly reward.
What is an accelerated course or program?
One compressed into a shorter calendar without dropping content — the same credits at a higher rate. An accelerated degree squeezes three years into two by cutting breaks and stacking terms; accelerated classes in schools move faster than the standard track. The adjective keeps the verb's core meaning: the pace, not the destination, is what changed.
What is the difference between accelerate and expedite?
Accelerate raises the rate of something in motion — a car, growth, a trend. Expedite removes obstacles and delays from a process so it completes sooner — paperwork, shipping, approvals. You can accelerate a decline, but you cannot expedite one: expedite implies helping something along to a desired finish, while accelerate is neutral about whether anyone wanted it faster.
Can accelerate describe negative change?
Freely — the verb is direction-neutral, and some of its most common company is bad news: an accelerating decline, accelerated erosion, warming that accelerates ice loss. This neutrality is useful in essays because it lets you describe runaway processes without editorializing: 'social media accelerated the spread of the rumour' states the mechanism and lets the reader supply the alarm.
What is an accelerator?
Three lives, one idea. In a car it is the pedal that raises speed; in physics, a machine that drives particles toward the speed of light; in the startup world, a program that compresses a young company's early growth into a few months. All of them feed off the noun acceleration — which in physics means, precisely, the rate at which speed itself changes.