acceleration
gb/ˌæksˌɛlɚˈeɪʃən/ us/ˌæksˌɛlɚˈeɪʃən/
B1
Inglés
~ 8000
Acepciones
0 acepciones
Sustantivo
B1
action
1
increase in speed of movement
The way something that is moving starts to go faster.
Patrón de uso:
the acceleration of [something moving]
Error frecuente:
Learners often confuse 'speed' with 'acceleration'. 'Speed' is how fast something is moving; 'acceleration' is the change in speed, usually from slower to faster. Another mistake is using a verb form like *'accelarate'* instead of the correct verb 'accelerate'.
Sinónimos
speed-up (Informal and general; describes getting faster but is less often used for precise physical motion.)
Antónimos
deceleration (Specifically refers to a decrease in speed, the opposite change to acceleration.)
Colocaciones
rapid acceleration
|sudden acceleration
|gentle acceleration
|acceleration and braking
|acceleration from 0 to 60
|under hard acceleration
Temas
science
|transport
|daily life
|core_vocabulary
Ejemplos
- The car’s smooth acceleration made it easy to join the highway traffic.
- You can feel the acceleration of the train as it leaves the station.
- The pilot increased acceleration during takeoff to lift the plane into the air.
- Strong acceleration on a wet road can cause the wheels to lose grip.
- Her bike has great acceleration, so she quickly pulled away from the group.
Ejemplos para estudiantes
- The bus’s acceleration pushed me back in my seat.
- I like the fast acceleration of electric cars.
- During acceleration, the motorcycle became harder to control.
- We felt the acceleration as the plane left the ground.
- Slow acceleration makes the old car feel weak.
Sustantivo
B2
event
2
process becoming faster or more intense
When some activity or change starts to happen faster than before.
Patrón de uso:
the acceleration of [process/change]
Error frecuente:
Learners sometimes use 'acceleration' when 'growth' alone is better. 'Growth' is the increase itself; 'acceleration of growth' means the growth is happening faster than before, not just that it exists.
Sinónimos
intensification (Stresses things becoming stronger or more extreme, not only faster, and often sounds more formal.)
Antónimos
slowdown (Commonly used for business and social processes when they become slower instead of faster.)
Colocaciones
acceleration of growth
|acceleration of change
|acceleration of inflation
|acceleration in demand
|economic acceleration
|technological acceleration
Temas
business
|economy
|technology
|society
|core_vocabulary
Ejemplos
- We’ve seen a clear acceleration of climate change over the past few decades.
- The company reported an acceleration in sales during the holiday season.
- There has been a worrying acceleration of political tensions in the region.
- New tools have led to a rapid acceleration of the software development cycle.
- The report predicts a sharp acceleration of urbanization in the coming years.
Ejemplos para estudiantes
- There is an acceleration of price rises this year.
- We can see an acceleration of change in our city.
- The new law caused an acceleration in housing development.
- The internet led to an acceleration of communication.
- Experts are afraid of the acceleration of global warming.
Sustantivo
technical
C1
quantity
3
physics rate of change of velocity
In physics, a measure of how fast the speed and direction of something change in a certain time.
Patrón de uso:
the acceleration of [object] is [value]
Error frecuente:
Learners often think acceleration only means 'speeding up'. In physics, acceleration also includes slowing down and changing direction, because it is any change in velocity.
Sinónimos
rate of change of velocity (A descriptive technical phrase often used in explanations and textbooks rather than everyday speech.)
Antónimos
zero acceleration (Describes the absence of any change in velocity, the technical opposite condition.)
Colocaciones
constant acceleration
|uniform acceleration
|angular acceleration
|tangential acceleration
|centripetal acceleration
|acceleration due to gravity
Temas
science
|physics
|education
Ejemplos
- Under constant acceleration, the object’s velocity increases by the same amount each second.
- According to Newton’s second law, acceleration is proportional to the net force acting on a mass.
- The experiment measured the angular acceleration of the rotating disk.
- Near Earth’s surface, the standard acceleration due to gravity is approximately 9.8 m/s².
- Plotting velocity against time allows you to calculate the object’s acceleration.
Ejemplos para estudiantes
- In this problem, you must find the acceleration of the ball.
- The graph shows how the acceleration changes over time.
- If the force is bigger, the acceleration is bigger too.
- The teacher asked us to write the formula for acceleration.
- At constant acceleration, the speed changes the same amount every second.
Sustantivo
B1
property
4
how quickly a vehicle speeds up
How fast a car, bike, or other vehicle can start going faster.
Patrón de uso:
[vehicle] has good/poor acceleration
Error frecuente:
Learners sometimes say *'strong speed'* or *'big speed'* when they mean that a car can speed up quickly. In this context, 'acceleration' or 'pickup' are the natural choices.
Sinónimos
pickup (Informal; commonly used in car talk to describe how quickly a vehicle responds when you press the pedal.)
Antónimos
sluggishness (Describes slow, weak response when speeding up, the opposite of lively acceleration in vehicles.)
Colocaciones
good acceleration
|poor acceleration
|strong acceleration
|off-the-line acceleration
|acceleration from a standstill
|0–60 acceleration
Temas
transport
|daily life
|transportation
|technology
Ejemplos
- The car’s acceleration is impressive for its size.
- Electric vehicles are known for their instant acceleration.
- This model has better acceleration but lower top speed than the previous version.
- The bike’s acceleration makes it ideal for city traffic.
- Drivers praised the truck’s strong acceleration when fully loaded.
Ejemplos para estudiantes
- My new car has very good acceleration.
- Small cars often have faster acceleration than big trucks.
- This motorcycle has strong acceleration at low speeds.
- The old car’s acceleration is slow, so I drive carefully.
- Good acceleration helps you enter the highway safely.
Sustantivo
technical
B2
action
5
speeding up computing tasks
In computers, making programs or tasks run faster, often with special parts or code.
Patrón de uso:
hardware/software acceleration of [task/process]
Error frecuente:
Learners may confuse 'acceleration' here with 'overclocking'. Overclocking is one specific way to make a chip faster, while acceleration can also come from using different hardware units or better code.
Sinónimos
optimization (Focuses on improving efficiency in general; not all optimization is about speed, while acceleration specifically stresses faster execution.)
Antónimos
bottleneck (Refers to a part of a system that slows everything down, working against acceleration.)
Colocaciones
hardware acceleration
|GPU acceleration
|video acceleration
|AI acceleration
|acceleration of graphics rendering
|acceleration engine
Temas
technology
|computing
Ejemplos
- The app uses GPU acceleration to handle complex graphics smoothly.
- Hardware acceleration significantly improves video playback performance.
- The new chip is designed for AI acceleration in data centers.
- Enabling acceleration in your browser can make web pages feel more responsive.
- Cloud providers now offer dedicated acceleration for machine learning workloads.
Ejemplos para estudiantes
- My laptop is slow because it has no graphics acceleration.
- Hardware acceleration makes the game run better.
- We turned on acceleration in the program to process the data faster.
- This phone has special acceleration for AI tasks.
- The company sells chips for video acceleration.
Sustantivo
formal
C1
action
6
students moving through school faster
In schools, letting a student study faster than normal, for example by skipping a grade.
Patrón de uso:
academic/grade acceleration for [student/group]
Error frecuente:
Learners may confuse 'acceleration' with simply 'extra classes'. Acceleration means moving through the official program faster, not just adding more lessons at the same level.
Sinónimos
advancement (More general; can mean any move to a higher level, not specifically moving faster through school.)
Antónimos
retention (In education, keeping a student in the same grade for longer, the opposite of moving them ahead more quickly.)
Colocaciones
grade acceleration
|academic acceleration
|subject acceleration
|early entrance acceleration
|acceleration policy
|acceleration program
Temas
education
|society
Ejemplos
- The school offers acceleration for gifted students in mathematics.
- Academic acceleration allowed her to finish high school a year early.
- The district is reviewing its policies on grade acceleration.
- Subject-based acceleration lets students move ahead in one area without skipping an entire grade.
- Parents met with the counselor to discuss possible acceleration for their child.
Ejemplos para estudiantes
- The school uses acceleration for very strong students.
- Because of acceleration, he entered university at 16.
- Grade acceleration is not common in our country.
- Subject acceleration helped her study advanced science early.
- They talked about acceleration with the teacher and the parents.
Gramática
Forma de diccionario
acceleration
AFI
GB/ˌæksˌɛlɚˈeɪʃən/
US/ˌæksˌɛlɚˈeɪʃən/
Sílabas y acento
ac - cel - er - a - tion (5 sílabas)
Stress on 3rd syllable (er)
Formas de la palabra
Noun
- Base: acceleration
- Plural: acceleration, accelerations
Familia de palabras
Forms
accelerations
noun
Core family
accelerate
verb B1
Related words
accelerator
noun
Negative and opposite forms
decelerate
verb B2
deceleration
noun
Advanced or less common
accelerant
noun C1
accelerative
adjective
Expresiones
acceleration due to gravity
1/ˌæksˌɛlɚˈeɪʃən dˈu tə ɡɹˈævɪti/
fixed phrase
technical
acceleration caused by gravity
The acceleration an object has when it falls because of gravity near a planet, such as Earth.
Ejemplos
- Near Earth’s surface, the acceleration due to gravity is about 9.8 meters per second squared.
- We assumed constant acceleration due to gravity when solving the problem.
- The experiment was designed to measure the local acceleration due to gravity.
acceleration lane
1/ˌæksˌɛlɚˈeɪʃən lˈeɪn/
fixed phrase
lane to speed up before merging
A part of the road next to a highway where drivers speed up so they can safely enter the faster traffic.
Ejemplos
- Use the acceleration lane to reach highway speed before merging.
- The short acceleration lane makes it difficult for trucks to join the traffic safely.
- Drivers should not stop in the acceleration lane unless absolutely necessary.
rapid acceleration
1/ɹˈæpɪd ˌæksˌɛlɚˈeɪʃən/
fixed phrase
very fast increase in speed
A very quick change from slow to fast, or a very quick increase in how fast something is happening.
Ejemplos
- The sports car is capable of rapid acceleration.
- There has been rapid acceleration in the spread of the disease.
- Investors are excited by the company’s rapid acceleration in revenue growth.