Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Swiftness of action or motion; speed. synonym: haste.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Rapidity of motion; swiftness; quickness; speed.
  • noun Velocity, Swiftness, etc. See quickness.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun Rapidity of motion; quickness; swiftness.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun in literary usage Speed.
  • noun oceanography The speed of individual waves (as opposed to the speed of groups of waves).

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a rate that is rapid

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[French célérité, from Old French, from Latin celeritās, from celer, swift.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

French célérité > Latin celeritas > Latin celer, fast, swift.

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Examples

  • Second, he used the word celerity in conversation.

    Obama And The Black Elite 2009

  • Upon the left, Brigadier Wilson, with Her Majesty's 53rd and the 30th Native Infantry equalled in celerity and regularity their comrades on the right; and this brigade was opposed to the 'Aieen' troops, called Avitabile's, when the fight was fiercely raging.

    The Autobiography of Liuetenant-General Sir Harry Smith, Baronet of Aliwal on the Sutlej, G. C. B. 1903

  • I recall the celerity with which he used to kick them off at sundown.

    The Complete Project Gutenberg Writings of Charles Dudley Warner Charles Dudley Warner 1864

  • I recall the celerity with which he used to kick them off at sundown.

    Being a Boy Charles Dudley Warner 1864

  • It's good that the hits on McCain are substantive and fact based, rather then simply making character assertions like McCain's "celerity" ads, these bring factual evidence to the table.

    New Obama Ad Hits McCain On Number-Of-Houses Gaffe 2009

  • And "there is no doubt," therefore, "that his exaggerated boldness and 'celerity' in decision making contributed to the American plunge into what General Omar Bradley was later to call 'frankly a great military disaster' and 'the wrong war, in the wrong place, at the wrong time, with the wrong enemy."'

    'The New War Over Hiroshima': An Exchange Alperovitz, Gar 1995

  • Celer rushed away from Rome, fearing vengeance, and did not rest until he had reached the limits of Etruria, and that his name became the synonym for quickness, so that men swift of foot were called _Celeres_ by the Romans, just as we still speak of "celerity," meaning rapidity of motion.

    The Story of Rome from the Earliest Times to the End of the Republic Arthur Gilman

  • The newly-married woman attends to the personal belongings of her happy possessor with the celerity which is taught in classes for "First Aid to the Injured."

    The Spinster Book Myrtle Reed 1892

  • Gerald Muspratt, a coffee planter, whose estate was situate some twelve miles distant, in the adjoining county of Victoria; and, the acquaintance ripening over the after-dinner coffee, with that breathless celerity which is one of the most charming characteristics of the

    The Adventures of Dick Maitland A Tale of Unknown Africa Harry Collingwood 1886

  • But the defenders have a way of massing upon each point thus attacked, and that with a celerity which is truly marvellous, and the result is the same.

    The Sign of the Spider Bertram Mitford 1884

Comments

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  • Thus with imagined wings our swift scene flies

    In motion with no less celerity

    Than that of thought...

    --Chorus, Henry V, by W. Shakespeare

    October 22, 2007

  • This is a good word, we need to start using it more often.

    October 22, 2007

  • 'A rate that is rapid'.

    A definition so crap it

    reminds us that Weirdnet is

    terminally vapid.

    January 24, 2008

  • Famous celery.

    January 24, 2008