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Friday February 11, 2005

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celerity \suh-LAIR-uh-tee\ , noun:
Rapidity of motion or action; quickness; swiftness.

Though not in the best of physical form, he was capable of moving with celerity.
-- Malachy McCourt, A Monk Swimming: A Memoir

Furthermore, as is well known, computer technology grows obsolete with amazing celerity.
-- Alan S. Blinder and Richard E. Quandt, "The Computer and the Economy", The Atlantic, December 1997

The lightning celerity of his thought processes took you on a kind of helter-skelter ride of surreal non-sequiturs, sudden accesses of emotion and ribald asides, made all the more bizarre for being uttered in those honeyed tones by the impeccably elegant gent before you.
-- "A life full of frolics", The Guardian, May 19, 2001

Celerity is from Latin celeritas, from celer, "swift." It is related to accelerate.

Dictionary.com Entry and Pronunciation for celerity

 

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