rapidity
rapidity Lexical Profile
rapidity Game Scores & Validity
• noun
The quality or state of moving, acting, or occurring with great speed; swiftness.
"The startling rapidity of technological advancement has transformed modern communication over the past two decades."
In relativistic physics, a dimensionless measure of motion defined as the inverse hyperbolic tangent of the ratio of an object's velocity to the speed of light, which adds linearly under Lorentz transformations.
"In particle accelerator calculations, physicists often use rapidity instead of standard velocity because differences in rapidity remain invariant under boosts along the beam axis."
• Rhymes for rapidity
Word Origin & Etymology
Borrowed in the late 16th century from French rapidité or Latin rapiditas, from rapidus ('swift, hurried, tearing away'), ultimately derived from the verb rapere ('to seize, snatch, or carry off').