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Contraction vs Accelerate - What's the difference?

contraction | accelerate |

As a noun contraction

is a reversible reduction in size.

As a verb accelerate is

(label) to cause to move faster; to quicken the motion of; to add to the speed of.

As an adjective accelerate is

(rare) accelerated; quickened; hastened; hurried.

contraction

English

Noun

(en noun)
  • A reversible reduction in size.
  • (economics) A period of economic decline or negative growth.
    • The country's economic contraction was caused by high oil prices.
  • (biology) A shortening of a muscle when it is used.
  • (medicine) A strong and often painful shortening of the uterine muscles prior to or during childbirth.
  • (linguistics) A process whereby one or more sounds of a free morpheme (a word) are lost or reduced, such that it becomes a bound morpheme (a clitic) that attaches phonologically to an adjacent word.
    • In English ''didn't'', ''that's'', and ''wanna'', the endings ''-n't'', ''-'s'', and ''-a'' arose by contraction .
  • (English orthography) A word with omitted letters replaced by an apostrophe, usually resulting from the above process.
    • "Don't" is a contraction of "do not."
  • (medicine) Contracting a disease.
    • The contraction of AIDS from toilet seats is extremely rare.
  • (phonetics) Syncope, the loss of sounds from within a word.
  • The acquisition of something, generally negative.
    • Our contraction of debt in this quarter has reduced our ability to attract investors.
  • (medicine) A distinct stage of wound healing, wherein the wound edges are gradually pulled together.

    • Antonyms

    * expansion * dilatation

    Derived terms

    * contractional * contractionary * hypercontraction * supercontraction

    Related terms

    * contract * contractation * contractive

    See also

    * omission * *

    accelerate

    English

    Verb

    (accelerat)
  • (label) To cause to move faster; to quicken the motion of; to add to the speed of.
  • (label) To quicken the natural or ordinary progression or process of.
  • *{{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=September-October, author= Michael Sivak
    • , magazine=(American Scientist), title= Will AC Put a Chill on the Global Energy Supply? , passage=Nevertheless, it is clear that the global energy demand for air-conditioning will grow substantially as nations become more affluent, with the consequences of climate change potentially accelerating the demand.}}
  • To cause a change of velocity.
  • (label) To hasten, as the occurrence of an event.
  • To enable a student to finish a course of study in less than normal time.
  • (label) To become faster; to begin to move more quickly.
  • (label) Grow; increase.
  • (label)

    • Synonyms

    * advance * dispatch * expedite * forward * further * hasten * quicken * speed up

    Antonyms

    * decelerate * retard

    Derived terms

    * accelerative * accelerator * accelerated motion * accelerating force

    Related terms

    * accelerando * accelerant * acceleration * accelerograph * accelerometer

    Adjective

  • (rare) Accelerated; quickened; hastened; hurried.
  • * 1662 Thomas Salusbury, Galileo's Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems , Dialogue 2:
    • ... a general knowledg of the definition of motion, and of the distinction of natural and violent, even and accelerate , and the like, sufficing.

    References

    * English ergative verbs ----