What does expedited mean?
Expedited is the past tense and past participle of the verb expedite, meaning to speed up or carry out something with unusual promptness. When a process is expedited — a passport application, a parcel shipment, a legal filing — it is given priority handling so that it is completed faster than normal, often in exchange for an additional fee. The word belongs largely to formal and commercial registers: logistics companies promise expedited shipping, courts expedite hearings, and agencies expedite approvals under urgent circumstances. Its Latin root, expedire, means literally 'to free the feet,' evoking the image of releasing something to move without hindrance, which makes the word's modern sense vividly literal. Expedited carries connotations of efficiency, urgency, and privilege: an expedited result is one moved to the front of the line. It should not be confused with expeditious, its adjectival cousin describing actions performed swiftly and efficiently.
verb (past tense and past participle of expedite)Accelerated or carried out promptly; made happen sooner than usual, especially with reference to a process, delivery, or official procedure.
- To have accelerated or hastened the progress of something (a process, shipment, request), especially in business, legal, or bureaucratic contexts.
"The court expedited the hearing after new evidence came to light."
"We paid extra for expedited shipping so the documents would arrive by Monday."
"The agency expedited approval of the vaccine under emergency protocols."
The Latin root of expedited literally means 'to free from the feet' — unshackling a process so it can move at full speed.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of expedited
Expedited derives ultimately from the Latin verb expedire, formed from ex- ('out of') and pes/pedis ('foot'), originally meaning to free the feet, hence to disentangle or set ready. The adjective expedite entered English in the late 16th century meaning 'free from impediment,' and the verb expedite followed shortly after in the early 17th century. Related words from the same root include expedition, which once meant rapid action before narrowing to its voyage sense, and impede, which uses the same foot-root to mean the opposite — to entangle or hold back.
Related word forms
How expedited is actually used
Expedited is chiefly formal or commercial in register, appearing frequently in logistics, law, government services, and customer-service language. It is almost always used transitively — someone expedited something. In everyday speech people more often say 'sped up' or 'rushed'; 'expedited' signals efficiency and priority, often implying an extra fee or special handling.
Easily confused with expedited
Expedited is the past tense of expedite, describing something that was sped up; expeditious is an adjective meaning efficient and speedy.
Extradited refers to handing over a person to another jurisdiction for trial; expedited means making a process or delivery faster.