fast
adjective · noun · adverb · verb
Simple meaning
Acting or moving or capable of acting or moving quickly.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
fastIPA pronunciation (US)
ˈfæst
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
adjective
Acting or moving or capable of acting or moving quickly
Moving with great speed, or capable of doing so; swift, rapid; light.
Firm against attack; fortified by nature or art; impregnable; strong.
of people
Steadfast, with unwavering feeling. (Now mostly in set phrases like fast friend(s).)
Of a place, characterised by business, hustle and bustle, etc.
Causing unusual rapidity of play or action.
noun
The act or practice of fasting, religious abstinence from food.
Abstaining from food
Acronym of focused assessment with sonography for trauma.
Acronym of firefighter assist and search team.
Acronym of free advertising-supported streaming television
adverb
In a firm or secure manner, securely; in such a way as not to be moved; safe, sound.
of sleeping
Deeply or soundly.
Immediately following in place or time; close, very near.
Quickly or rapidly (often used as a combining form)
“How fast can he get here?”
Quickly, with great speed; within a short time.
Ahead of the correct time or schedule.
verb
intransitive
To practice religious abstinence, especially from food.
intransitive
To reduce or limit one's nutrition intake for medical or health reasons, to diet.
Abstain from certain foods, as for religious or medical reasons
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- A1 · Beginner
- Frequency
- Very Common
- Typical Use
- Everyday English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Acting or moving or capable of acting or moving quickly
Used this way, fast is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- No strong connotation
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Nearby words
- hot , more casual, better suited to speech than writing
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use fast
- “The band played a fast fox trot.”adjective
- “How fast can he get here?”adverb
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
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Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Inflected forms
Grammatical variations of the same word.
More quickly.
Most quickly.
Abstaining from food.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
A minor fast day on Nissan 14 that is observed only by firstborn males.
A cunning or deceitful action or device.
Nuclear reactor in which nuclear fissions are caused by fast neutrons because little or no moderator is used.
The time scale used in data processing when the time-scale factor is less than one.
A rapid means of achieving a goal.
A minor fast day on Tishri 3 that commemorates the killing of the Jewish governor of Judah.
Related words
Connected by subject or meaning, not by word formation.
A person who fastens or makes fast.
Related Words
Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.