acceleration
ac·ce·le·ra·tion/əkˌsɛl.əˈɹeɪ.ʃən/noun
acceleration is spelled A-C-C-E-L-E-R-A-T-I-O-N, 5 syllables: ac·ce·le·ra·tion. The wrong spelling people search most is accelleration: about 60 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 45 of all searches for the word. Acceleration is a noun meaning “The act of accelerating, or the state of being accelerated; increase of motion or action; as opposed to…”. The plural of acceleration is accelerations.
How many letters and syllables are in acceleration?
| Letters | 12: A-C-C-E-L-E-R-A-T-I-O-N |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 5: ac·ce·le·ra·tion |
| In writing | 5.4 times per million words; the 10,680th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 1; the most searched, accelleration, about 60 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026).
How do you spell acceleration?
Acceleration is spelled A-C-C-E-L-E-R-A-T-I-O-N. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 45 of the searches for acceleration in either form.
Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is acceleration?
Acceleration appears 5.4 times per million words in written English, the 10,680th 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 acceleration?
- /əkˌsɛl.əˈɹeɪ.ʃən/
- /ækˌsɛl.əˈɹeɪ.ʃən/
- /ɪkˌsɛl.əˈɹeɪ.ʃən/
Acceleration has 5 syllables, split ac·ce·le·ra·tion in writing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-acceleration.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of acceleration
- accelerations plural
- acc.
- a.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does acceleration mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
The act of accelerating, or the state of being accelerated; increase of motion or action; as opposed to retardation or deceleration.
A falling body moves toward the earth with an acceleration of velocity.
- 2
The amount by which a speed or velocity increases (and so a scalar quantity or a vector quantity).
The boosters produce an acceleration of 20 metres per second per second.
- 3
The change of velocity with respect to time (can include deceleration or changing direction).
- 4
The advancement of students at a rate that places them ahead of where they would be in the regular school curriculum.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you abbreviate acceleration?
Wiktionary records 4 abbreviations of acceleration: a., acc., accel, accel..
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Acceleration in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense act or state:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | accélération |
| German | Beschleunigung, Akzeleration |
| Portuguese | aceleração |
| Spanish | aceleración, aceleramiento, acceleración |
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 acceleration come from?
First attested in 1531.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).