VELOCITY
speed, velocity
(noun) distance travelled per unit time
Source: WordNet® 3.1
Etymology
Noun
velocity (countable and uncountable, plural velocities)
(physics) A vector quantity that denotes the rate of change of position with respect to time, or a speed with the directional component.
Rapidity of motion.
The rate of occurrence.
(economics) The number of times that an average unit of currency is spent during a specific period of time.
Synonyms
• speed
Hyponyms
• angular velocity
• escape velocity
• hypervelocity
• phase velocity
• supervelocity
• ultravelocity
Source: Wiktionary
Ve*loc"i*ty, n.; pl. Velocities. Etym: [L. velocitas, from velox, -
ocis, swift, quick; perhaps akin to v to fly (see Volatile): cf. F.
vélocité.]
1. Quickness of motion; swiftness; speed; celerity; rapidity; as, the
velocity of wind; the velocity of a planet or comet in its orbit or
course; the velocity of a cannon ball; the velocity of light.
Note: In such phrases, velocity is more generally used than celerity.
We apply celerity to animals; as, a horse or an ostrich runs with
celerity; but bodies moving in the air or in ethereal space move with
greater or less velocity, not celerity. This usage is arbitrary, and
perhaps not universal.
2. (Mech.)
Definition: Rate of motion; the relation of motion to time, measured by the
number of units of space passed over by a moving body or point in a
unit of time, usually the number of feet passed over in a second. See
the Note under Speed. Angular velocity. See under Angular.
– Initial velocity, the velocity of a moving body at starting;
especially, the velocity of a projectile as it leaves the mouth of a
firearm from which it is discharged.
– Relative velocity, the velocity with which a body approaches or
recedes from another body, whether both are moving or only one.
– Uniform velocity, velocity in which the same number of units of
space are described in each successive unit of time.
– Variable velocity, velocity in which the space described varies
from instant, either increasing or decreasing; -- in the former case
called accelerated velocity, in the latter, retarded velocity; the
acceleration or retardation itself being also either uniform or
variable.
– Virtual velocity. See under Virtual.
Note: In variable velocity, the velocity, strictly, at any given
instant, is the rate of motion at that instant, and is expressed by
the units of space, which, if the velocity at that instant were
continued uniform during a unit of time, would be described in the
unit of time; thus, the velocity of a falling body at a given instant
is the number of feet which, if the motion which the body has at that
instant were continued uniformly for one second, it would pass
through in the second. The scientific sense of velocity differs from
the popular sense in being applied to all rates of motion, however
slow, while the latter implies more or less rapidity or quickness of
motion.
Syn.
– Swiftness; celerity; rapidity; fleetness; speed.
Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition