{
    "term": "accelerate",
    "partOfSpeech": "verb",
    "ox5000": true,
    "cefr": "c1",
    "verbForms": {
        "presentSimple": {
            "iYouWeThey": "accelerate",
            "heSheIt": "accelerates"
        },
        "pastSimple": "accelerated",
        "pastParticiple": "accelerated",
        "ingForm": "accelerating"
    },
    "definitions": [
        {
            "senseNumber": 1,
            "definition": "to happen faster or earlier; to make something happen faster or earlier",
            "sensetop": "accelerate something",
            "cefr": "c1",
            "examples": [
                {
                    "text": "Inflation continues to accelerate."
                },
                {
                    "text": "Exposure to the sun can accelerate the ageing process.",
                    "contextForm": "accelerate something"
                },
                {
                    "text": "Government policy has greatly accelerated the decline of the small farmer."
                },
                {
                    "text": "Population growth accelerated only after 1750."
                },
                {
                    "text": "The epidemic is accelerating dramatically."
                },
                {
                    "text": "The pace of change has begun to accelerate."
                },
                {
                    "text": "factors which may accelerate inflation"
                },
                {
                    "text": "rapidly accelerating social change"
                },
                {
                    "text": "Environmental factors can accelerate the development of certain cancers."
                },
                {
                    "text": "He vowed to intensify efforts to accelerate the structural reform of the economy."
                }
            ],
            "topics": ["Change, cause and effect"],
            "collocations": {
                "adverb": ["dramatically", "greatly", "rapidly"]
            }
        },
        {
            "senseNumber": 2,
            "definition": "to start to go faster",
            "cefr": "c1",
            "examples": [
                {
                    "text": "The runners accelerated smoothly around the bend."
                },
                {
                    "text": "The car accelerated to overtake me."
                },
                {
                    "text": "The car purred into life and accelerated away."
                }
            ],
            "topics": ["Physics and chemistry", "Transport by car or lorry"],
            "collocations": {
                "adverb": ["hard", "quickly", "smoothly"]
            }
        }
    ],
    "pronunciations": {
        "uk": [
            {
                "pronunciation": "/əkˈseləreɪt/",
                "audio": "ac/accelerate/accelerate__gb_1.mp3"
            },
            {
                "pronunciation": "/əkˈseləreɪts/",
                "audio": "ac/accelerate/accelerates__gb_1.mp3"
            },
            {
                "pronunciation": "/əkˈseləreɪtɪd/",
                "audio": "ac/accelerate/accelerated__gb_1.mp3"
            },
            {
                "pronunciation": "/əkˈseləreɪtɪŋ/",
                "audio": "ac/accelerate/accelerating__gb_1.mp3"
            }
        ],
        "us": [
            {
                "pronunciation": "/əkˈseləreɪt/",
                "audio": "ac/accelerate/accelerate__us_1.mp3"
            },
            {
                "pronunciation": "/əkˈseləreɪts/",
                "audio": "ac/accelerate/accelerates__us_1.mp3"
            },
            {
                "pronunciation": "/əkˈseləreɪtɪd/",
                "audio": "ac/accelerate/accelerated__us_1.mp3"
            },
            {
                "pronunciation": "/əkˈseləreɪtɪŋ/",
                "audio": "ac/accelerate/accelerating__us_1.mp3"
            }
        ]
    },
    "wordOrigin": "early 16th cent. (in the sense to make something happen faster): from Latin accelerat- ‘hastened’, from the verb accelerare, from ad- ‘towards’ + celer ‘swift’."
}