speed

English Online Dictionary. What means speed‎? What does speed mean?

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /spiːd/
• Rhymes: -iːd

Etymology 1

From Middle English spede (“prosperity, good luck, quickness, success”), from Old English spēd (“success”), from Proto-West Germanic *spōdi (“prosperity, success”), from Proto-West Germanic *spōan, from Proto-Germanic *spōaną (“to prosper, succeed, be happy”), from Proto-Indo-European *speh₁- (“to prosper, turn out well”). Cognate with Scots spede, speid (“success, quickness, speed”), Dutch spoed (“haste; speed”), German Low German Spood (“haste; speed; eagerness; success”), German Sput (“progress, acceleration, haste”). Related also to Old English spōwan (“to be successful, succeed”), Albanian shpejt (“to speed, to hurry”) and Russian спеши́ть (spešítʹ, “to hurry”), Latin spēs (“hope, expectation”), spērō (“hope”, verb), perhaps also to Ancient Greek σπεύδω (speúdō, “to urge on, hasten, press on”).

Noun

speed (countable and uncountable, plural speeds)

1. The state of moving quickly or the capacity for rapid motion.

   Synonyms: celerity, rapidity, velocity; see also Thesaurus:speed
2. (mathematics, physics) The rate of motion or action, specifically the magnitude of the velocity; the rate distance is traversed in a given time.

   Hyponyms: lightspeed, speed of light, speed of sound

3. (photography) The sensitivity to light of film, plates or sensor.
4. (photography) The duration of exposure, the time during which a camera shutter is open (shutter speed).
5. (photography) The largest size of the lens opening at which a lens can be used.
6. (photography) The ratio of the focal length to the diameter of a photographic objective.
7. (slang, uncountable) Amphetamine or any amphetamine-based drug (especially methamphetamine) used as a stimulant, especially illegally.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:methamphetamine

8. (archaic) Luck, success, prosperity.
9. (slang) Personal preference.
10. (finance, uncountable) A third-order measure of derivative price sensitivity, expressed as the rate of change of gamma with respect to changes in the underlying asset price.

    Synonyms: DgammaDspot, gamma of the gamma

    Hypernym: Greeks

Derived terms

Translations

See also

Units for measuring speed: metres/meters per second, m/s, kilometres/kilometers per hour, km/h (metric); knot, kt, kn (nautical); feet per second, ft/s, ft/sec and fps, miles per hour, mph (imperial and U.S. customary); mach (aeronautical)

Interjection

speed

1. (film) Called by the soundman when the recording equipment has reached running speed and is ready to go.

Etymology 2

From Middle English speden, from Old English spēdan (“to speed, prosper, succeed, have success”), from Proto-West Germanic *spōdijan (“to succeed”). Cognate with Scots spede, speid (“to meet with success, assist, promote, accomplish, speed”), Dutch spoeden (“to hurry, rush”), Low German spoden, spöden (“to hasten, speed”), German sputen, spuden (“to speed”).

Verb

speed (third-person singular simple present speeds, present participle speeding, simple past and past participle sped or (mostly UK) speeded)

1. (intransitive, archaic) To succeed; to prosper, be lucky.
   • 18^thc., Oliver Goldsmith, Introductory to Switzerland

     At night returning, every labor sped, / He sits him down the monarch of a shed: / Smiles by his cheerful fire, and round surveys, / His children’s looks, that brighten at the blaze;

2. (transitive, archaic) To help someone, to give them fortune; to aid or favour.
3. (intransitive) To go fast.
4. (intransitive) To exceed the speed limit.
5. (transitive) To increase the rate at which something occurs.
6. (intransitive, slang) To be under the influence of stimulant drugs, especially amphetamines.
7. (obsolete) To be expedient.
8. (archaic) To hurry to destruction; to put an end to; to ruin.
9. (archaic) To wish success or good fortune to, in any undertaking, especially in setting out upon a journey.
10. To cause to make haste; to dispatch with celerity; to drive at full speed; hence, to hasten; to hurry.
11. To hasten to a conclusion; to expedite.

Usage notes

• The Cambridge Guide to English Usage indicates that sped is for objects in motion (the race car sped) while speeded is used for activities or processes, but notes that the British English convention does not hold in American English.
• Garner's Modern American Usage (2009) indicates that speeded is incorrect, except in the phrasal verb, speed up. Most American usage of speeded conforms to this.
• Sped is about six times more common in American English (COCA) than speeded. Sped is twice as common in UK English (BNC).

Quotations

• For quotations using this term, see Citations:speed.

Derived terms

• speed up
• Godspeed

Translations

Anagrams

• pedes, deeps, Peeds, Deeps, spede

Dutch

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English speed.

Attested since at least 1971.

Pronunciation

Noun

speed m (uncountable)

1. (slang) amphetamines

References

• speed – Woordenboek van Populair Taalgebruik

French

Etymology

Borrowed from English speed.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /spid/

Noun

speed m (plural speeds)

1. speed (amphetamine)

Adjective

speed (plural speed)

1. (informal) speedy, hasty