What does accelerate mean?
Word: Accelerate
Part of Speech: Verb
Meaning: Accelerate means to go faster, or to make something go faster or happen sooner.
Synonyms: speed up, quicken
Antonyms: slow down
How do you spell accelerate?
Syllables: ac - cel - er - ate
Tricky part: It starts with a double c but has only one l. The first c sounds like k and the second like s.
Watch out for: acelerate, accellerate, excelerate
Memory tip: The start works like accept and accent: two c's, and the second c says s. After that, one l is enough.
Accelerate in a sentence
Example 1: The taxi driver accelerated as soon as the signal turned green.
Example 2: Warm weather can accelerate the ripening of mangoes.
Example 3: The plane accelerated down the runway and lifted into the clouds.
Fun Fact
The pedal that makes a car go faster is called the accelerator, a name built straight from accelerate.
Practise the CREST Way
Word Connection
Choose the antonym of the word: accelerate
a) rush
b) decelerate
c) hurry
d) race
Show answer
b) decelerate. To decelerate is to slow down, the reverse of accelerating.
Spell-o-Spell
Choose the correctly spelt word:
a) acommodate
b) accelerate
c) exagerate
d) colaborate
Show answer
b) accelerate. Look for the double c and the single l: only accelerate has both.
Word Cookie
Insert the correct pair of letters to form a word:
acc_l_rate
a) e, a
b) a, e
c) e, e
d) i, e
Show answer
c) e, e. Both gaps take e: ac-cel-er-ate, with cel and then er.
Mingle-Mangle
Form a meaningful word from the jumbled letters:
rcleateeca
a) calculate
b) accurate
c) celebrate
d) accelerate
Show answer
d) accelerate. Celebrate needs a b and calculate a u; accurate is too short, which leaves accelerate.
Multiple Choice Questions
1. A bus that accelerates ____.
a) keeps the same speed
b) stops at the kerb
c) slows down
d) picks up speed
Show answer
d) picks up speed
2. If a teacher wants to accelerate the end of a project, she wants it to ____.
a) start again
b) finish later
c) finish sooner
d) stop for good
Show answer
c) finish sooner
