fast

CEFRA1

/fɑːst/

adjective · adverb

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    adjective

    Moving or able to move quickly.

  2. 02

    adverb

    Quickly or at high speed.

Examples

  • Can you run as fast as Mike?

  • I'm tired of eating fast food.

At a glance

Sits at A1 on the CEFR scale

Senses
5
Parts of speech
2
Citations
5
Synonyms
5

Deep Dive

adjective

Extra meanings

  1. Firmly fixed or difficult to move.

  2. Firm against attack; fortified by nature or art; impregnable; strong.

  3. Steadfast, with unwavering feeling. (Now mostly in set phrases like fast friend(s).)

More examples

In context

  • I am going to buy a fast car.

  • Plutonium-240 has a much higher fission cross-section for fast neutrons than for thermal neutrons.

  • That rope is dangerously loose. Make it fast!

Synonyms

Antonyms

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

The cheetah is known for being extremely blank when hunting.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Origin

adjective

From Middle English fast, fest, from Old English fæst (“firm, secure”), from Proto-West Germanic *fast, from Proto-Germanic *fastuz; see it for cognates and further etymology. The development of “rapid” from an original sense of “secure” apparently happened first in the adverb and then transferred to the adjective; compare hard in expressions like “to run hard”. The original sense of “secure, firm” is now slightly archaic, but retained in the related fasten (“make secure”). Also compare close meaning change from Latin rapiō (“to snatch”) to Latin rapidus (“rapid, quick”), from Irish sciob (“to snatch”) to Irish sciobtha (“quick”).