apace

C2+ Topic:Describing Qualities

US /əˈpeɪs/ UK /əˈpeɪs/ See IPA manual

Meanings

1

adv
swiftly; at a rapid pace

Preparations for the festival went on apace through the night.

Thesaurus

Synonyms

1 adv · swiftly; at a rapid pace swiftly quickly rapidly speedily fast briskly

Opposites

slowly sluggishly

Word family

Related forms pace

Etymology

From Middle English a pas ('at a pace'), from Old French a pas, from Latin ad ('to') + passus ('step, pace').

a pas Old French passus Latin

View etymology graph ->

Topics

Describing Qualities

External links

# apace

**Type:** Word
**Level:** C2+
**Part of speech:** adv
**IPA (US):** /əˈpeɪs/
**IPA (UK):** /əˈpeɪs/

## Meanings
1. swiftly; at a rapid pace

## Examples
- Preparations for the festival went on apace through the night.

## Synonyms
- swiftly
- quickly
- rapidly
- speedily
- fast
- briskly

## Antonyms
- slowly
- sluggishly

## Related Forms
- pace

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: a pas
- Root: passus

## Etymology
From Middle English a pas ('at a pace'), from Old French a pas, from Latin ad ('to') + passus ('step, pace').

## AI Etymology
apace comes from Middle English a pas ('at a pace'), from Old French a pas, from Latin ad ('to') + passus ('step, pace'). Morphologically, the word is transparent as a compound: its parts remain visible in the modern spelling, while the older history of those parts supplies the deeper ancestry. In modern use, the adverb sense is "swiftly; at a rapid pace", which keeps the etymology connected to the word's present dictionary value rather than treating it as a merely historical label. The wider word family includes related English forms such as pace, showing how the same base continues to support neighboring English vocabulary. The principal historical forms in the chain include Old French a pas, Latin passus, which anchor the explanation in named linguistic material.

## Topics
- Describing Qualities

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