fast
/fɑːst/
Word Rarity
Common
Frequency: 5.13 in modern English
7
Scrabble Score
4
Letters
1
Syllables
4
Unique Chars
Meaning
adj
Steadfast, with unwavering feeling. (Now mostly in set phrases like fast friend(s).)
adj
Of a place, characterised by business, hustle and bustle, etc.
adj
Able to transfer data in a short period of time.
Example Sentences
- "That rope is dangerously loose. Make it fast!"
- "out-lawes […] lurking in woods and fast places"
- "I still hear you sayin', "Dear one, hold me fast""
- "I am going to buy a fast car."
- "Plutonium-240 has a much higher fission cross-section for fast neutrons than for thermal neutrons."
- "Sydney is a fast city, and the pace is becoming increasingly more frantic."
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Germanic *fastuz Proto-West Germanic *fast Old English fæst Middle English fast English fast 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”).
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /fɑːst/
- British English: /fɑːst/
Usage
Inflected Forms
faster (comparative)
fastest (superlative)
fasts (plural)
fasts (present, singular)
fasting (participle, present)
fasted (participle, past)
fasted (past)
F.A.S.T. (alternative)
F. A. S. T. (alternative)