or speeded; speeding
Synonyms
Noun
Verb
- barrel
- belt
- blast
- blaze
- blow
- bolt
- bomb [slang]
- bowl
- breeze
- bundle
- bustle
- buzz
- cannonball
- careen
- career
- chase
- course
- crack (on)
- dash
- drive
- fly
- hare
- hasten
- hie
- highball
- hotfoot (it)
- hump
- hurl
- hurry
- hurtle
- hustle
- jet
- jump
- motor
- nip
- pelt
- race
- ram
- rip
- rocket
- run
- rush
- rustle
- scoot
- scurry
- scuttle
- shoot
- step
- tear
- travel
- trot
- whirl
- whisk
- zip
- zoom
Examples of speed in a Sentence
Chad Murphy, The Enquirer, 2 Apr. 2024
Vehicle speed — When a vehicle’s speed increases, the tire-traction grip and ability to control the vehicle decreases.
—Star-Telegram Bot, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 1 Apr. 2024
Burns is gigantic, a refrigerator with limbs, but with unexpected speed, deft moves and, best of all perhaps, an engaging, palpable joy on the court on that is as big as his frame.
—Greg Cote, Miami Herald, 1 Apr. 2024
That’s why, every day, Betts is on the field early, taking full-intensity grounders off a fungo training bat while a large clock times his ability to turn plays at game speed — 4.3 seconds is the standard time to beat.
—Jack Harris, Los Angeles Times, 31 Mar. 2024
The mean tidal current speed is 1.94 feet per second averaged across the whole tide cycle but would be faster at some times of the month than others and generally would be faster in mid-channel than along banks.
—Edward Lotterman, Twin Cities, 31 Mar. 2024
The ship is underway with a heading of approximately 1-4-1 (south-east) and an approximate speed of 8 knots (9.2 mph) in the Fort McHenry channel, according to the NTSB.
—Ramon Padilla, USA TODAY, 30 Mar. 2024
High speed rail in California Biden touts high-speed rail between Southern California and Las Vegas.
—Anthony De Leon, Los Angeles Times, 21 Mar. 2024
Talk about speed: Our scientists are already decreasing plant breeding cycles from five years down to merely four months with precision breeding.
—Bill Anderson, Fortune, 21 Mar. 2024
Marc D. Hauser, TIME, 3 Apr. 2024
An exemption would have helped speed the Max 7′s certification.
—Lori Aratani, Washington Post, 2 Apr. 2024
This dual-band Wi-Fi 6 router supports 2.4GHz and 5GHz frequency bands and speeds up to 1.8Gbps.
—PCMAG, 1 Apr. 2024
In a statement to PEOPLE, a Dallas Police Department spokesperson said the Corvette and a Lamborghini were speeding in the far-left lane of the 6600 block of northbound North Central Expressway shortly before 6:25 p.m. local time.
—Brian Anthony Hernandez, Peoplemag, 31 Mar. 2024
Other chains plan to speed up their use of automation, including kiosks and robots.
—Alina Selyukh, NPR, 30 Mar. 2024
And research backs this up: Post-meal activity has been shown to speed stomach emptying and colon transit, and according to a separate study in the American Journal of Gastroenterology, even mild activity after a meal was enough to significantly reduce bloating.
—Lizzy Briskin, SELF, 29 Mar. 2024
Maye fires a rocket to former XFL wideout Sam Mobley and the ball speeds past his hands.
—Mike Kaye, Charlotte Observer, 29 Mar. 2024
Repetitive Tasks Automation is speeding up factories!
—Expert Panel®, Forbes, 28 Mar. 2024
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'speed.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Word History
Noun
Middle English sped, speede, spede "luck, fortune, good fortune, success, assistance, benefit, rate of motion or progress," going back to Old English spēd "luck, success, riches, opportunity, power," spēdum (dative plural used adverbially) "swiftly," going back to West Germanic *spōdi- (whence also Old Saxon spōd "success, advantage," Middle Dutch spoed "prosperity, progress, haste," Old High German spuot "quickness, velocity"), derivative with the abstract noun suffix -ti- from the base of *spōan- "to succeed" (whence Old English spōwan "to succeed, thrive" [Class VII strong verb], Middle Dutch spoen "to strive," Old High German spuoen "to succeed"), going back to an o-grade derivative of the Indo-European verbal base *speh1- "thrive, prosper," whence also Old Church Slavic spějǫ, spěti "to have success," Lithuanian spė́ju, spė́ti "to manage (to do something)," Sanskrit sphā́yate "(s/he) grows fat, increases," Hittite išpāi "(s/he) gets full, is satiated"; as nominal derivatives Latin spēs "hope" (< *speh1-), Latin prosperus "agreeable to one's wishes, successful, prosperous," Old Russian sporŭ "abundant," Sanskrit sphiráḥ "fat" (< *sph1-ró-)
Verb
Middle English speden "to succeed, fare, assist, travel swiftly," going back to Old English spēdan, gespēdan "to have success, succeed, prosper," verbal derivative of spēd "luck, success" — more at speed entry 1
Note: Parallel Germanic formations are Old Saxon spōdian "to further, promote" and Old High German gispuoten "to make thrive."
Noun
before the 12th century, in the meaning defined at sense 7
Verb
before the 12th century, in the meaning defined at intransitive sense 3a
Phrases Containing speed
Articles Related to speed
Dictionary Entries Near speed
Cite this Entry
“Speed.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/speed. Accessed 16 Apr. 2024.
Copy Citation
Kids Definition
speed
1 of 2 nounspeed
2 of 2 verb
or speeded; speeding
Medical Definition
speed
noun
More from Merriam-Webster on speed
Nglish: Translation of speed for Spanish Speakers
Britannica English: Translation of speed for Arabic Speakers
Britannica.com: Encyclopedia article about speed
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