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PlainSpell

accelerate

UK /əkˈsɛl.əˌɹeɪt/verb

accelerate is spelled A-C-C-E-L-E-R-A-T-E: 10 letters and 4 syllables. It appears 4.6 times per million words in written English, the 11,870th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a verb, accelerate means “To cause to move faster; to quicken the motion of; to add to the speed of” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).

How many letters and syllables are in accelerate?

Letters10: A-C-C-E-L-E-R-A-T-E
Syllables4 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing4.6 times per million words; the 11,870th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Rhymes with

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How common is accelerate?

Accelerate appears 4.6 times per million words in written English, the 11,870th most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce accelerate?

  • UK /əkˈsɛl.əˌɹeɪt/
  • UK /ækˈsɛl.əˌɹeɪt/
  • UK /ɪkˈsɛl.əˌɹeɪt/

Accelerate has 4 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-accelerate.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

What rhymes with accelerate?

One word on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as accelerate from its last stressed vowel (/ɛləɹeɪt/, British pronunciation):

Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).

Forms of accelerate

  • accelerates present, singular, he/she/it
  • accelerating participle, present
  • accelerated participle, past

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does accelerate mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

verb

  1. 1

    To cause to move faster; to quicken the motion of; to add to the speed of.

  2. 2

    To quicken the natural or ordinary progression or process of.

    to accelerate the growth of a plant, the increase of wealth, etc.

  3. 3

    To cause a change of velocity.

  4. 4

    To hasten, as the occurrence of an event.

    to accelerate our departure

  5. 5

    To enable a student to finish a course of study in less than normal time.

  6. 6

    To become faster; to begin to move more quickly.

    The car began to accelerate as soon as the light turned green.

  7. 7

    Grow; increase.

adjective

  1. 1

    archaicAccelerated; quickened; hastened; hurried.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Accelerate in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchaccélérer (to cause to move faster)
Germanbeschleunigen (to cause to move faster), eilen, sich beeilen (to hasten), schneller werden (to become faster)
Portugueseacelerar (to cause to move faster), apressar (to quicken natural or ordinary progression or…)
Spanishacelerar, embalar, accelerar (to cause to move faster), apresurar (to hasten)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does accelerate come from?

First attested in the 1520s.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after accelerate