Acceleration

3 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Acceleration \Ac*cel`er*a"tion\, n. [L. acceleratio: cf. F.
     acc['e]l['e]ration.]
     The act of accelerating, or the state of being accelerated;
     increase of motion or action; as, a falling body moves toward
     the earth with an acceleration of velocity; -- opposed to
     {retardation}.


     [1913 Webster]
  
           A period of social improvement, or of intellectual
           advancement, contains within itself a principle of
           acceleration.                            --I. Taylor.
     [1913 Webster] (Astr. & Physics.)
  
     {Acceleration of the moon}, the increase of the moon's mean
        motion in its orbit, in consequence of which its period of
        revolution is now shorter than in ancient times.
  
     {Acceleration} and {retardation of the tides}. See {Priming
        of the tides}, under {Priming}.
  
     {Diurnal acceleration of the fixed stars}, the amount by
        which their apparent diurnal motion exceeds that of the
        sun, in consequence of which they daily come to the
        meridian of any place about three minutes fifty-six
        seconds of solar time earlier than on the day preceding.
        
  
     {Acceleration of the planets}, the increasing velocity of
        their motion, in proceeding from the apogee to the perigee
        of their orbits.
        [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  acceleration
       n 1: an increase in speed; "modern science caused an acceleration
            of cultural change" [ant: {deceleration}]
       2: the act of accelerating; increasing the speed [syn: {quickening},
           {speedup}]
       3: (physics) a rate of change of velocity

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  40 Moby Thesaurus words for "acceleration":
     accelerando, aggravation, beefing-up, blowing up, blowup,
     concentration, condensation, consolidation, deepening, double time,
     double-quick, double-quick time, drive, enhancement, exacerbation,
     exaggeration, explosion, festination, forced march, forwarding,
     getaway, hastening, heating-up, heightening, hurrying, impetus,
     information explosion, intensification, magnification, pickup,
     population explosion, quickening, redoubling, reinforcement,
     speeding, speedup, step-up, strengthening, thrust, tightening