Rapid

//ˈɹæpɪd// adj, adv, noun, slang

adj, adv, noun, slang ·Common ·High school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A rough section of a river or stream which is difficult to navigate due to the swift and turbulent motion of the water. plural-normally
  2. 2
    a part of a river where the current is very fast wordnet
  3. 3
    A burst of rapid fire. dated
  4. 4
    Ellipsis of rapid chess. abbreviation, alt-of, ellipsis

    "In these rapid games we had just twenty-five minutes each to make all our moves, a far cry from traditional chess, where games can last up to seven hours."

Adjective
  1. 1
    Very swift or quick.

    "a rapid stream"

  2. 2
    Steep, changing altitude quickly. (of a slope)
  3. 3
    Needing only a brief exposure time. (of a lens, plate, film, etc.)
  4. 4
    Violent, severe. England, dialectal
  5. 5
    Happy. dialectal, obsolete
Adjective
  1. 1
    done or occurring in a brief period of time wordnet
  2. 2
    characterized by speed; moving with or capable of moving with high speed wordnet
Adverb
  1. 1
    Rapidly. archaic, colloquial

Synonyms

All synonyms
fastspeedyabruptacuteagilealacritous

Example

More examples

"Technological innovation brought about the rapid progress of the information industry."

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle French rapide and its etymon Latin rapidus.

Related phrases

Big RapidsCedar RapidsGrand RapidsNeosho RapidsPark RapidsRapid AnnRapid CityRock RapidsWisconsin Rapidsbus rapid transitrapid antigen testrapid automatized naming

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.