Standard Lemma guide

velocity

noun · 6 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • Received-Pronunciation: /vəˈlɒsəti/
  • General-American: /vəˈlɑsəti/
  • US: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • rhymes with -ɒsɪti
  • CMU ARPABET: V AH0 L AA1 S AH0 T IY0 Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

noun

Meaning 1

A vector quantity that denotes the rate of change of position with respect to time, combining speed with a directional component.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: countable, uncountable

Topics: natural-sciences, physical-sciences, physics

Examples

  • A car racing in a circle may retain the same speed while continually changing its velocity.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

noun

Meaning 2

A rapidity of motion.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: countable, uncountable

Examples

  • The train was travelling at a slower velocity than usual.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: speed, velocity

Antonyms: none provided

3

noun

Meaning 3

The rate of occurrence.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: countable, uncountable

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

4

noun

Meaning 4

The number of times that an average unit of currency is spent during a specific period of time.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: countable, uncountable

Topics: economics, sciences

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

5

noun

Meaning 5

The value corresponding to how hard a key is struck on a MIDI controller or keyboard.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: countable, uncountable

Qualifier: music hardware and software

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

6

noun

Meaning 6

distance travelled per unit time

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: speed

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: rate

Narrower terms: angular velocity, airspeed, escape velocity, groundspeed, hypervelocity, muzzle velocity, peculiar velocity, radial velocity, speed of light, light speed, c, steerageway, terminal velocity

History

Etymology

From Middle French vélocité, from Latin vēlōcitās (“speed”), from vēlōx (“fast”), thus a doublet of veloce.

Across languages

Translations

134 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Afrikaans: snelheid — vector quantity
  • Albanian: shpejtësia — vector quantity
  • Aragonese: velocidat — vector quantity
  • Armenian: արագություն (aragutʻyun) — vector quantity
  • Azerbaijani: sürət — vector quantity
  • Basque: lastertasun — vector quantity
  • Basque: abiadur — vector quantity
  • Belarusian: ско́расць (skórascʹ) — vector quantity
  • Bengali: গতিবেগ (gotoibeg) — vector quantity
  • Bulgarian: скорост (skorost) — vector quantity
  • Burmese: အလျင် (a.lyang) — vector quantity
  • Catalan: velocitat — vector quantity
  • Chinese Mandarin: 速度 (sùdù) — vector quantity
  • Czech: rychlost — vector quantity
  • Danish: hastighed — vector quantity
  • Dutch: snelheid — vector quantity
  • Estonian: kiirus — vector quantity
  • Finnish: nopeus — vector quantity
  • French: vecteur vitesse — vector quantity
  • French: vélocité — vector quantity
  • North Frisian: faard — vector quantity
  • West-Frisian: snelheid — vector quantity
  • Galician: velocidade — vector quantity
  • Georgian: სიჩქარე (sičkare) — vector quantity
  • German: Geschwindigkeit — vector quantity
  • Greek: ταχύτητα (tachýtita) — vector quantity
  • Hebrew: מהירות — vector quantity
  • Hindi: वेग (veg) — vector quantity
  • Hungarian: sebesség — vector quantity
  • Icelandic: hraði — vector quantity
  • Indonesian: kecepatan — vector quantity
  • Indonesian: velositas — vector quantity
  • Irish: treoluas — vector quantity
  • Italian: velocità — vector quantity
  • Japanese: 速度 (sokudo) — vector quantity
  • Javanese: kacepetan — vector quantity
  • Javanese: ꦏꦕꦼꦥꦼꦠꦤ꧀ (kacepetan) — vector quantity
  • Kazakh: жылдамдық (jyldamdyq) — vector quantity
  • Khmer: ល្បឿន (lbɨən) — vector quantity
  • Korean: 속도 (sokdo) — vector quantity
  • Latin: vēlōcitās — vector quantity
  • Latvian: ātrums — vector quantity
  • Macedonian: брзина (brzina) — vector quantity
  • Malay: halaju — vector quantity
  • Malayalam: പ്രവേഗം (pravēgaṁ) — vector quantity
  • Maltese: veloċità — vector quantity
  • Manx: bieauid — vector quantity
  • Marathi: वेग (veg) — vector quantity
  • Nepali: गति (gati) — vector quantity
  • Norwegian Bokmål: hastighet — vector quantity
  • Norwegian Nynorsk: hastigheit — vector quantity
  • Occitan: velocitat — vector quantity
  • Persian: سرعت برداری — vector quantity
  • Polish: prędkość — vector quantity
  • Portuguese: velocidade — vector quantity
  • Punjabi: ਵੇਗ (veg) — vector quantity
  • Romanian: vector viteză — vector quantity
  • Romanian: velocitate — vector quantity
  • Russian: ско́рость (skórostʹ) — vector quantity
  • Serbo-Croatian: brzina — vector quantity
  • Slovak: rýchlosť — vector quantity
  • Slovene: hitrost — vector quantity
  • Spanish: velocidad — vector quantity
  • Sundanese: ᮜᮏᮥ (laju) — vector quantity
  • Swedish: hastighet — vector quantity
  • Tagalog: tulin — vector quantity
  • Tagalog: hagibis — vector quantity
  • Tagalog: belosidad — vector quantity
  • Tajik: суръат (sur'at) — vector quantity
  • Tamil: திசைவேகம் (ticaivēkam) — vector quantity
  • Tatar: тизлек (tizlek) — vector quantity
  • Thai: ความเร็ว (kwaam-reo) — vector quantity
  • Turkish: hız — vector quantity
  • Ukrainian: швидкість (švydkistʹ) — vector quantity
  • Uzbek: tezlik — vector quantity
  • Vietnamese: vận tốc — vector quantity
  • Welsh: cyflymder — vector quantity
  • Armenian: արագություն (aragutʻyun) — rapidity of motion
  • Basque: lastertasun — rapidity of motion
  • Belarusian: ско́расць (skórascʹ) — rapidity of motion
  • Bulgarian: скорост (skorost) — rapidity of motion
  • Catalan: velocitat — rapidity of motion
  • Czech: rychlost — rapidity of motion
  • Dutch: snelheid — rapidity of motion
  • Finnish: vauhti — rapidity of motion
  • Finnish: nopeus — rapidity of motion
  • French: vitesse — rapidity of motion
  • Galician: velocidade — rapidity of motion
  • Georgian: სისწრაფე (sisc̣rape) — rapidity of motion
  • German: Geschwindigkeit — rapidity of motion
  • Greek: ταχύτητα (tachýtita) — rapidity of motion
  • Ingrian: vauhti — rapidity of motion
  • Italian: velocità — rapidity of motion
  • Japanese: 速さ (hayasa) — rapidity of motion
  • Japanese: 速度 (sokudo) — rapidity of motion
  • Latin: celeritās — rapidity of motion
  • Latin: vēlōcitās — rapidity of motion
  • Latvian: ātrums — rapidity of motion
  • Maltese: veloċità — rapidity of motion
  • Norwegian Bokmål: hastighet — rapidity of motion
  • Norwegian Nynorsk: hastigheit — rapidity of motion
  • Plautdietsch: Schwindichkjeit — rapidity of motion
  • Portuguese: velocidade — rapidity of motion
  • Russian: ско́рость (skórostʹ) — rapidity of motion
  • Russian: быстрота́ (bystrotá) — rapidity of motion
  • Sanskrit: जव (java) — rapidity of motion
  • Spanish: velocidad — rapidity of motion
  • Swedish: fart — rapidity of motion
  • Tagalog: tulin — rapidity of motion
  • Vietnamese: tốc độ — rapidity of motion
  • Armenian: հաճախություն (hačaxutʻyun) — the rate of occurrence
  • Bulgarian: бързина (bǎrzina) — the rate of occurrence
  • Dutch: frequentie — the rate of occurrence
  • Dutch: snelheid — the rate of occurrence
  • Finnish: vauhti — the rate of occurrence
  • French: fréquence — the rate of occurrence
  • Georgian: სიჩქარე (sičkare) — the rate of occurrence
  • German: Frequenz — the rate of occurrence
  • German: Häufigkeit — the rate of occurrence
  • Greek: ταχύτητα (tachýtita) — the rate of occurrence
  • Italian: velocità — the rate of occurrence
  • Romanian: velocitate — the rate of occurrence
  • Russian: ско́рость (skórostʹ) — the rate of occurrence
  • Russian: быстрота́ (bystrotá) — the rate of occurrence
  • Swedish: hastighet — the rate of occurrence
  • Armenian: արագություն (aragutʻyun) — economics
  • Chinese Mandarin: 周轉率 /周转率 (zhōuzhuǎnlǜ) — economics
  • Dutch: omloopsnelheid — economics
  • Finnish: kiertonopeus — economics
  • German: Umlaufgeschwindigkeit — economics
  • Portuguese: velocidade — economics
  • Russian: ско́рость (skórostʹ) — economics
  • Spanish: velocidad — economics
  • Vietnamese: vận tốc của tiền tệ — economics
Real reading context

velocity in complete knowledge articles