celerity

noun

1. (uncountable, usually)Speed, swiftness.

   “O most kind maid, / It was the swift celerity of his death, / Which I did think with slower foot came on, / That brain'd my purpose.”

   “...when a new medium for attraction was started in the bazaar to which we have alluded, and her letter was dispatched with all possible celerity, insisting that her daughters "should work day and night"—so ran the document—for three weeks,...”

   “The phantoms, for so they then seemed, were flitting on the other side of the deck, and, with a noiseless celerity, were casting loose the tackles and bands of the boat which swung there.”

   “Warning messages were relayed to the signalmen at Slough East and Dolphin Junction boxes with such celerity that the up main signals were replaced to danger in front of the express before it finally stopped. The signalman at Dolphin Junction just had time to replace the down main signals and pull the emergency lever to lay detonators in front of the fast approaching 7 p.m. Paddington-Reading train.”

2. (uncountable, usually)The speed of an individual wave (as opposed to the speed of groups of waves); often denoted c.
3. (uncountable, usually)The speed of an individual wave (as opposed to the speed of groups of waves); often denoted c.
4. (dated, uncountable, usually)The speed of symbol transmission, now called baud rate.

   “Celerity of dispatching the Chappe telegraph [section title]”

   “...and many endeavours have been made, not only to transmit signals with celerity, but also to transmit more than one communication at the same time along the same wire.”