Word.ws English Dictionary

lickety

/ˈlɪkɪti/

lickety adverb: at full speed, fast.

Adverb

lickety

  1. (US, informal, usually compounded with a noun) At full speed, fast.
    • lickety-cut
    • lickety-split

Forms of lickety

alternative formlickedy
alternative formlicketie
alternative formlickerty
alternative formlicketty
alternative formlickity
alternative formlickoty

Origin of lickety

Somewhat disputed. The Oxford English Dictionary suggests either the verb or noun lick “stroke with the tongue”, with -ety, a suffix used to extend monosyllabic words. Merriam-Webster supports OED, deriving lickety-split from the same senses of lick. Harper's Online Etymology Dictionary, in contrast, suggests it is a variant of the noun lick “sprint; rate of speed”. Some writers suggest that lickety-split may be onomatopoeic – compare clickety, clicketty-clack – but they note this as personal opinion. The word is attested, with variable spelling, from the 19th century; see quotations below and at Citations:lickety.

Questions about lickety

What does lickety mean?
Lickety means at full speed, fast.
What part of speech is lickety?
Lickety is an adverb.
How do you pronounce lickety?
Lickety is pronounced /ˈlɪkɪti/.

Words near lickety in the dictionary

  1. lickerty
  2. lickery
  3. lickest
  4. licketh
  5. licketty
  6. lickety
  7. lickety-spit
  8. lickety-split
  9. Lickey
  10. Lickey and Blackwell
  11. Lickfold

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: lickety (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.

Last updated:

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