RAPIDITY

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does rapidity mean? 

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

1. a rate that is rapid

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

 Dictionary entry details 

• RAPIDITY (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 ("rapidity" is a kind of...):

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

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

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)

Derivation:

rapid (done or occurring in a brief period of time)

rapid (characterized by speed; moving with or capable of moving with high speed)

 Context examples 

I observed that he was smoking with extraordinary rapidity.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Mrs Croft left them, and Captain Wentworth, having sealed his letter with great rapidity, was indeed ready, and had even a hurried, agitated air, which shewed impatience to be gone.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

Mrs. Grant laughed at her for her rapidity.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

And if Catherine had not most warmly asserted his innocence, it seemed likely that William would lose the favour of his master forever, if not his place, by her rapidity.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

Marianne's was finished in a very few minutes; in length it could be no more than a note; it was then folded up, sealed, and directed with eager rapidity.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

Elizabeth, who was left by herself, now smiled at the rapidity and ease with which an affair was finally settled, that had given them so many previous months of suspense and vexation.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

The wound persisted in healing with a rapidity that astonished him, and instead of trying to forget, he found himself trying to remember.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

To sights and sounds and events which required action, he responded with lightning-like rapidity.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

With a rapidity which, at the time, seemed incredible, and even afterwards is impossible to realize, the whole aspect of nature at once became convulsed.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

But blow followed blow with bewildering rapidity.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)