What does expediting mean?
Expediting refers to the act of making something happen faster — accelerating the progress of a process, task, or shipment toward its completion. It is the present participle of the verb 'expedite,' a word rooted in the Latin 'expedire,' meaning to free one's feet from entanglement and thus to set in motion without hindrance. In modern usage, expediting appears most often in business, legal, and logistical contexts: companies speak of expediting payments, permits, deliveries, and applications when normal timelines are too slow. The word carries an efficient, purposeful connotation rather than a frantic one — it implies removing obstacles so that work proceeds smoothly at greater speed. A related noun sense exists in logistics, where an 'expeditor' or 'expediting' role involves actively chasing and coordinating shipments or materials to keep projects on schedule. Because bureaucracy and supply chains are universal features of modern life, expediting remains a practical and widely useful term.
verb (present participle and gerund of expedite)The act of making a process or action happen more quickly; serving to accelerate the progress or completion of something.
- To speed up the progress or completion of a task, process, or shipment.
- (Gerund use) The business or practice of accelerating logistics and bureaucratic processes.
"The shipping company is expediting deliveries to clear the backlog before the holidays."
"By expediting the visa application, the agency saved the family weeks of anxious waiting."
"Expediting orders has become a core service for online retailers competing on delivery speed."
"Expedite" literally means to set someone's feet free — from Latin pes, 'foot' — so when you're expediting paperwork, you're metaphorically unshackling it to move faster.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of expediting
Expediting derives ultimately from the Latin verb 'expedire,' meaning to free the feet, disentangle, or make ready — formed from 'ex-' (out) plus 'pes/pedis' (foot). Something unencumbered could therefore proceed swiftly, giving rise to the senses of speed and efficiency that persist today. English adopted 'expedite' in the early 17th century, and its inflected form 'expediting' developed naturally alongside related words such as 'expedition' and 'expeditious,' all descendants of the same Latin root.
Related word forms
How expediting is actually used
Register: formal to neutral; common in business, legal, and logistics contexts. 'Expedite' is a transitive verb — it requires an object ('expedite the request', not 'the request will expedite').
Easily confused with expediting
'Expediting' means speeding a process along, while 'executing' means carrying it out in the first place.