accelerating

Pluralacceleratings

1. 1
   verb

   Present participle of accelerate.

   The rocket was accelerating rapidly as it cleared the launch tower.

   Prices are accelerating faster than wages this year.

   Note

   The -ing form does double duty. With a form of be it builds the progressive. Because accelerate works both with and without an object, the same form covers a rocket accelerating and a team accelerating the schedule. As a gerund it names the action but keeps verb grammar (accelerating the timetable proved costly). That sets it apart from the countable noun, which takes an article or a plural instead of an object.

   The new funding is accelerating the research.

   Accelerating the timetable proved costly.

2. 2
   nouncountable

   An instance of increasing in speed; an act of acceleration.

   The engineer noted a sharp accelerating in the test vehicle's motion.

   An abrupt accelerating threw the loose cargo against the wall.

   Similarspeedup, surge

   Oppositedeceleration, slowdown

   Note

   A countable noun that comes into its own in the plural: the acceleratings and brakings of a vehicle. Paired with brakings, it keeps both halves of the description in the same -ing shape, which suits repeated, stop-and-go motion. Where acceleration usually names the process as a whole, this form counts the separate bursts of speed, one by one.

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