noun

• 1The quality of moving or reacting with great speed.

  ‘the fish sink into the sand with such rapidity that it must be seen to be believed’

  More example sentences

  • ‘For example, there are several cases on record of third-degree burns healing with extraordinary rapidity.’
  • ‘The length of each symbol corresponds to the rapidity of the gesture.’
  • ‘She was interrupted in her reverie by a sight of a man, clad in black, descending the hill with some rapidity.’
  • ‘What's striking about the sequence is the rapidity with which the numbers grow larger.’
  • ‘However, neither the scale of the phenomenon nor its rapidity of onset during or following allopolyploidization is known.’
  • ‘In the cadenzas, Cziffra rips out the single note runs with a rapidity usually reserved for piano roll "performances."’
  • ‘To record the rapidity, force, breadth, or intensity of movements, Laban required additional notations.’
  • ‘Rapidity of thrust generation is accordingly coupled to torsional agility in pitch.’
  • ‘It may be in part accounted for by much energy being expended in the rapidity of the transmission.’
  • ‘My only real problem with the game is that you can lose your hand with frightening rapidity.’
  • ‘The rock liner for the junction pockets is glasslike due to the rapidity with which it cooled during formation.’
  • ‘This would contribute to the apparent rapidity of the oxidation event.’
  • ‘The Red Army would then move with great rapidity to concentrate against one enemy division.’
  • ‘You mentioned being fascinated by the rapidity of some of these electronic devices.’
  • ‘He can tell by the rapidity of the bleeps that he is close by now.’
  • ‘The rapidity with which you work through further evaluation depends on whether you have any other health complaints or not.’
  • ‘The rapidity with which the Indian government has abandoned its previous foreign policy precepts underlines the fact that there is no going back.’
  • ‘But, if by any accident the parachute is not expanded as he falls, the rapidity of the fall will not be checked.’
  • ‘It won't be anything on the scale or the rapidity of the surge in Iraq.’
  • ‘The tidings spread with wonderful rapidity in the wilderness of Judea.’

  Synonyms

  quickness, swiftness, speed, speediness, briskness, expeditiousness, alacrity, dispatch, velocity, promptness, promptitude

  View synonyms

  1. 1.1The fact of happening at a great rate; swiftness.
     ‘technology spreads with extraordinary rapidity’
     More example sentences

     • ‘During that month of June the events have succeeded themselves with great rapidity.’
     • ‘In fact, I can turn them over with frightening rapidity.’
     • ‘Perhaps our concept of justification is not itself precise enough to require a precise degree of ease or rapidity of access.’
     • ‘The idea of the ` movement of movements ' has proved with extraordinary rapidity to lead nowhere.’
     • ‘My sentiments became elevated with the most inconceivable rapidity to the level of my ideas.’
     • ‘The total breakdown of the socialist economies of Eastern Europe, on which East Germany was almost entirely dependent, occurred with startling rapidity.’
     • ‘In the same fashion, the rapidity with which you go through the adaptation is highly individual.’
     • ‘We just could not afford either the rapidity or the nature of some of his political experiments.’
     • ‘He "was promoted with spectacular rapidity to the post of political editor," the Guardian notes.’
     • ‘Inspirational talent from Northern Ireland whose rapidity around the green baize earned him the nickname "Hurricane" Higgins.’
     • ‘Reason: the unprecedented rapidity with which the hitherto relatively sedentary human populations are inter-mixing across the globe.’
     • ‘Second, the rapidity of such character analyses enables a large number of research workers to propose phylogenies based on various sets of characters.’
     • ‘Once that accessibility was achieved, the technology began to diffuse with increasing rapidity.’
     • ‘That may be valid for some businesses, especially in view of the rapidity of technological changes.’
     • ‘We can only hope that the projection does not become more pessimistic with equal rapidity.’
     • ‘He was amazed at the rapidity of it all.’
     • ‘The British found out toward the end of the 19th century that a seemingly unassailable international power position can melt away with unexpected rapidity.’
     • ‘The rapidity of that shift depends on the rate of advance of battery technology.’
     • ‘The town was commenced in 1837, and has increased with remarkable rapidity.’
     • ‘There were many who located in the new city and building began to go on with increasing rapidity.’