CELERITY

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does celerity mean? 

• CELERITY (noun)
  The noun CELERITY has 1 sense:

1. a rate that is rapid

  Familiarity information: CELERITY used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• CELERITY (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A rate that is rapid

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

celerity; quickness; rapidity; rapidness; speediness

Hypernyms ("celerity" is a kind of...):

pace; rate (the relative speed of progress or change)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "celerity"):

fleetness (rapidity of movement)

immediacy; immediateness; instancy; instantaneousness (the quickness of action or occurrence)

despatch; dispatch; expedition; expeditiousness (the property of being prompt and efficient)

promptitude; promptness (the characteristic of doing things without delay)

 Context examples 

Van Helsing returned with extraordinary celerity, bearing with him a surgical case.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

I dare say you believed it; but I am by no means convinced that you would be gone with such celerity.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

At the Rink Rapids two native huskies, Teek and Koona, were added; and the celerity with which Buck broke them in took away François’s breath.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

Also, the celerity with which it had been accepted and published was a pleasant thought to him.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

She hastened to ring the bell; and when the tray came, she proceeded to arrange the cups, spoons, &c., with assiduous celerity.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Again, therefore, she applied herself to the key, and after moving it in every possible way for some instants with the determined celerity of hope's last effort, the door suddenly yielded to her hand: her heart leaped with exultation at such a victory, and having thrown open each folding door, the second being secured only by bolts of less wonderful construction than the lock, though in that her eye could not discern anything unusual, a double range of small drawers appeared in view, with some larger drawers above and below them; and in the centre, a small door, closed also with a lock and key, secured in all probability a cavity of importance.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

Ask him the grain output of Paraguay for 1903, or the English importation of sheetings into China for 1890, or at what weight Jimmy Britt fought Battling Nelson, or who was welter-weight champion of the United States in '68, and you'll get the correct answer with the automatic celerity of a slot-machine.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)