velocity
/vɪˈlɒsɪti
/noun (plural velocities)
1The speed of something in a given direction: the velocities of the emitted particles...
- He noticed Venus move, he was able to determine its direction and its velocity and very importantly he was able to determine its angular diameter.
- If an object is moving in one direction without a force acting on it, then it continues to move in that direction with a constant velocity.
- Anti-matter has mass and when mass moves at a high velocity, there is an overall increase in energy.
1.1(In general use) speed: the tank shot backwards at an incredible velocity...
- Scientists and inventors are unraveling new technology at incredible velocity.
- But you don't have to be a dot-com executive to see how the Internet accelerates business velocity.
- Medical advances aside, almost every technological progress has been about velocity, about the simple process of speeding things up.
Synonyms
speed, pace, rate, tempo, momentum, impetus;
swiftness, swift/fast pace, fastness, quickness, speediness, rapidity, briskness, expeditiousness, expedition, dispatch;
acceleration
informal clip, fair old rate, fair lick, steam, nippiness
literary fleetness, celerity
1.2 (also velocity of circulation) Economics The rate at which money changes hands within an economy.He assumed no international trade effects, an unchanged money supply and a constant velocity of circulation....
- John Maynard Keynes challenged the theory in the 1930s, saying that increases in money supply lead to a decrease in the velocity of circulation and that real income, the flow of money to the factors of production, increased.
- Time and money appear as commensurate albeit inverse values because of the effect of the velocity of circulation on the accumulation of capital.
Origin
Late Middle English: from French vélocité or Latin velocitas, from velox, veloc- 'swift'.