Word.ws English Dictionary

celeripede

UK/sɛˈlɛɹɪpiːd/

celeripede noun: an early form of the bicycle, consisting of two wheels of equal diameter attached by a wooden bar and lacking either pedals or a means of steering.

Noun

celeripede (plural celeripedes)

  1. (also, attributive, historical) An early form of the bicycle, consisting of two wheels of equal diameter attached by a wooden bar and lacking either pedals or a means of steering.
    • [… I]f Louis Philippe would read out of our book, the French would catch the infection, transmit the mails and passengers to Rennes, and thus give them that celeripede character of which they are so fond of boasting.1835: The Mechanics’ Magazine, Museum, Register, Journal, and Gazette, volume XXII, page 409 (J. Cunningham)
    • Celeripede and velocipede (abbreviated often into velo), both stressed “swiftness of foot.”
    • The Frenchman’s claim goes back to 1816. M. Niepce was a pioneer of photography. Possibly with Sivrac’s contraption in mind, he built a machine that, because of its speed, he called a celeripede. It was a simple device consisting of two equal-sized wooden wheels connected by a bar upon which the...1970: Rudolph Brasch, How Did Sports Begin?: A Look at the Origins of Man at Play, pages 112 and 114 (McKay)

Forms of celeripede

pluralceleripedes
alternative formcéléripede

Origin of celeripede

Borrowed from French céléripède.

Questions about celeripede

What does celeripede mean?
Celeripede means an early form of the bicycle, consisting of two wheels of equal diameter attached by a wooden bar and lacking either pedals or a means of steering.
What part of speech is celeripede?
Celeripede is a noun.
How do you pronounce celeripede?
Celeripede is pronounced /sɛˈlɛɹɪpiːd/ (UK).
What is the plural of celeripede?
The plural of celeripede is celeripedes.

Words near celeripede in the dictionary

  1. celeriacs
  2. celeried
  3. celeries
  4. celerifere
  5. celeriferes
  6. celeripede
  7. celeripedes
  8. celeritie
  9. celerities
  10. celeritous
  11. celerity

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: celeripede (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “celeripede.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/celeripede. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.