SWIFTNESS

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does swiftness mean? 

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

1. a rate (usually rapid) at which something happens

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

 Dictionary entry details 

• SWIFTNESS (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A rate (usually rapid) at which something happens

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

fastness; speed; swiftness

Context example:

the project advanced with gratifying speed

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

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

Attribute:

fast (acting or moving or capable of acting or moving quickly)

slow (not moving quickly; taking a comparatively long time)

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

haste; hastiness; hurriedness; hurry; precipitation (overly eager speed (and possible carelessness))

execution speed ((computer science) the speed with which a computational device can execute instructions; measured in MIPS)

graduality; gradualness (the quality of being gradual or of coming about by gradual stages)

Derivation:

swift (moving very fast)

 Context examples 

Giving over his attempt to determine the shadow, he stepped on deck and started forward, walking with a swiftness and confidence which surprised me.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

I sank to the ground, and my injurer, with increased swiftness, escaped into the wood.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

Then with swiftness, but with absolute method, Van Helsing performed the operation.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

With the swiftness and wide-reaching of multitudinous thought Charles Butler's whole life was telescoped upon his vision.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

But he had yet to learn the remarkable quickness of White Fang, who struck with the certainty and swiftness of a coiled snake.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

In this round and the two which followed he showed a swiftness and accuracy which old ringsiders declared that Mendoza in his prime had never surpassed.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

They were some miles out when we first saw them, but they shot forward with great swiftness, and were soon so near that the rowers could distinguish our persons.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Swiftness and certitude require strength, and the man had not this strength.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

They all agreed that I could not be produced according to the regular laws of nature, because I was not framed with a capacity of preserving my life, either by swiftness, or climbing of trees, or digging holes in the earth.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

To such anxious attention was the general's civility carried, that not aware of her extraordinary swiftness in entering the house, he was quite angry with the servant whose neglect had reduced her to open the door of the apartment herself.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)