Other forms: accelerations
Acceleration is the rate at which speed increases. Rapid acceleration, acceleration due to gravity, from nought to sixty.
In physics it is any change in velocity, which means slowing down and turning are acceleration too — a fact that surprises people and matters a great deal in mechanics. Acceleration due to gravity near the earth's surface is about 9.8 metres per second squared. In cars it is quoted as time to sixty miles an hour. Note accelerate, accelerator.
1nounaccelerationThe rate at which speed increases.
“Acceleration due to gravity is about 9.8 metres per second squared.”
acceleration is a rate of change.
Latin acceleratio comes from accelerare, to hasten — ad plus celer, swift. Celerity and the Italian celere come from the same swiftness.
Proto-Indo-European
*kel-
French
accélération
Latin
accelerātiō
English, today
acceleration
From Latin accelerātiō. First attested in 1531. From French accélération or more likely directly from Latin accelerātiō (“a hastening, acceleration”). Equivalent to accelerate + ion.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA