acceleration
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
Letters
12 characters
Language
English
word origin
Source
Wiktionary
open dictionary
Access
Free
no sign-up needed
Detailed reference entry for the English word "acceleration", 12-letters, with pronunciation in International Phonetic Alphabet notation, etymology traced through Germanic and Romance roots where applicable, common misspelling variants catalogued from Hunspell error dictionaries, and usage frequency ranked against the top 100,000 English words in the Wordfreq corpus. PlainSpell covers English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German spelling with confusable-pair detection that highlights visually and phonetically similar words. This entry for "acceleration" includes synonyms, antonyms, homophones, and cross-language translation pointers sourced from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org extract. Whether you are verifying the correct spelling of "acceleration" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
acceleration is aEnglishnoun. It means: The act of accelerating, or the state of being accelerated; increase of motion or action; as opposed to retardation or deceleration. Pronounced /əkˌsɛl.əˈɹeɪ.ʃən/. Often confused with accelerator and accelerating.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | acceleration |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /əkˌsɛl.əˈɹeɪ.ʃən/ |
| Letters | 12 |
| Frequency rank | #10,640 |
| Misspellings tracked | 16 |
| Confusable pairs | 2 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for acceleration is 12 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /əkˌsɛl.əˈɹeɪ.ʃən/. Corpus data places it at rank #10,640 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it.Wiktionary records 4 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 16 documented wrong-spelling variants for acceleration, with forms such as "acceelration", "acceleartion", and "acceleraiton". Each variant represents a distinct typo pattern that appears often enough in corpora to be worth flagging, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution.It also participates in 2 confusable-pair relationships, "accelerator", "accelerating", where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₂éd Proto-Italic *ad Proto-Italic *ad- Latin ad- Proto-Indo-European *kel-der. Latin celer Proto-Indo-European *-h₂ Proto-Indo-European *-éh₂ Proto-Indo-European *-yéti Proto-Indo-European *-eh₂yéti Proto-Italic *-āō Lat… Root origin matters for spelling because borrowed morphemes (Greek, Latin, Old French, Old English) carry their source-language orthographic conventions into modern English, which is why historical etymology is often the cleanest predictor of whether a cluster like "-ough", "-eau", or "-tion" will appear. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct English form is acceleration, spelled A-C-C-E-L-E-R-A-T-I-O-N, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1The act of accelerating, or the state of being accelerated; increase of motion or action; as opposed to retardation or deceleration.
- 2The amount by which a speed or velocity increases (and so a scalar quantity or a vector quantity).
- 3The change of velocity with respect to time (can include deceleration or changing direction).
- 4The advancement of students at a rate that places them ahead of where they would be in the regular school curriculum.
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₂éd Proto-Italic *ad Proto-Italic *ad- Latin ad- Proto-Indo-European *kel-der. Latin celer Proto-Indo-European *-h₂ Proto-Indo-European *-éh₂ Proto-Indo-European *-yéti Proto-Indo-European *-eh₂yéti Proto-Italic *-āō Latin -ō Latin celerō Latin accelerō Proto-Indo-European *-tisder. Proto-Italic *-tjō Latin -tiō Latin accelerātiōder. English acceleration First attested in 1531. From French accélération or more likely directly from Latin accelerātiō (“a hastening, acceleration”). Equivalent to accelerate + -ion.
Antonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: acceelration,acceleartion,acceleraiton,accelerasion,acceleratino,accelerationn,acceleratoin,accelerattion,accelerration,accelertaion,accelleration,accelreation,accleeration,acecleration,aceleration,caceleration
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
Relative frequency of common misspelling types for acceleration
Misspelling Variants of "acceleration"
Frequency rank: #10,640 in English
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you spell "acceleration"?
What does "acceleration" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "acceleration"?
How do you pronounce "acceleration"?
What is the origin of the word "acceleration"?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter A in our English index: