alacrity

Valid in Scrabble

Scrabble points
13
Words With Friends
14
Letters
8
Pronunciation
/əˈlakrᵻti/(UK)
See all 2 pronunciations
/əˈlakrᵻti/(UK) · /əˈlæk.rə.ti/

Definition of alacrity

2 senses · 1 part of speech · etymology included

noun

  1. (countable, uncountable)Eagerness; liveliness; enthusiasm.
    “Besides, a wealthy man, well at ease, may pray to God quietly and merrily with alacrity and great quietness of mind, whereas he who lieth groaning in his grief cannot endure to pray nor can he hardly think upon anything but his pain.”
    “I have not that alacrity of spirit / Nor cheer of mind that I was wont to have.”
    “"I'll get into the clothes this minute, if they're here," said Sam, with great alacrity.”
    “You have an overgrown alacrity For saying nothing much and hearing less […]”
    “This evening, however, he was struck by the beaming alacrity of the aide-de-camp's greeting.”
See all 2 definitions

noun

  1. (countable, uncountable)Eagerness; liveliness; enthusiasm.
    “Besides, a wealthy man, well at ease, may pray to God quietly and merrily with alacrity and great quietness of mind, whereas he who lieth groaning in his grief cannot endure to pray nor can he hardly think upon anything but his pain.”
    “I have not that alacrity of spirit / Nor cheer of mind that I was wont to have.”
    “"I'll get into the clothes this minute, if they're here," said Sam, with great alacrity.”
    “You have an overgrown alacrity For saying nothing much and hearing less […]”
    “This evening, however, he was struck by the beaming alacrity of the aide-de-camp's greeting.”
  2. (countable, uncountable)Promptness; speed.
    “Governments show thus how successfully men can be imposed on, even impose on themselves, for their own advantage. […] Yet this government never of itself furthered any enterprise, but by the alacrity with which it got out of its way.”
    “He had a uniform jacket with one button off, and seeing a white man on the path, hoisted his weapon to his shoulder with alacrity.”
    “Not just that, but if the inlet of a turbopump impeller runs dry, it would overspeed with blinding alacrity.”

Definitions from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA.

Etymology

Mid-15th century; from Middle English alacrite, from Latin alacritās, from alacer (“brisk”) + -itās (“-ity”).

Words you can make from alacrity

116 playable · top: CLARITY (12 pts)

Best play clarity 12 points

7-letter words

1 word

6-letter words

8 words

5-letter words

28 words

4-letter words

36 words

3-letter words

30 words

2-letter words

12 words

Find your best play with alacrity

See every word you can make from a set of letters that includes alacrity, or browse word lists you can mine for high-scoring plays.