飞速

• Pinyin: fēi sù
• Hanzi breakdown: 飞 = 飞 (a bird in flight — flying); 速 = 辶 + 束 (movement + bundle/tight — rapid directional movement)

Meaning

At lightning speed; extremely fast. Used as an adverb to describe development, change, or movement that occurs at an exceptionally rapid pace.

Primarily functions as an adverbial modifier rather than a standalone adjective. Often collocates with 发展、增长、变化、进步、扩张 to describe rapid economic, technological, or social change. More emphatic than 快速 (fast/rapid) and comparable to 迅速 but with greater intensity.

Examples

1. 人工智能技术在过去五年内飞速发展，其在医疗影像诊断、自然语言处理和自动驾驶等领域的应用已从实验室走向了大规模商业落地。 Artificial intelligence has advanced at breakneck speed over the past five years. Its applications in medical imaging diagnosis, natural language processing, and autonomous driving have moved from the lab to large-scale commercial rollout.
2. 随着互联网基础设施的持续完善，农村地区的电商生态也在飞速成长，越来越多的农民开始通过直播带货将本地特产销往全国各地。 As internet infrastructure continues to improve, the e-commerce ecosystem in rural areas is also growing rapidly, and more and more farmers are selling local specialties nationwide through livestream sales.
3. 面对飞速变化的技术环境，传统制造业企业不得不大幅缩短产品迭代周期，并在研发投入上做出远超以往的战略性承诺。 Facing a rapidly changing technological environment, traditional manufacturing companies have had to dramatically shorten product iteration cycles and make strategic commitments to R&D investment far beyond what they did in the past.

Usage Guide

Context: technology, economy, science, society

Tone: positive

Do Say

• 中国新能源汽车产业飞速崛起，仅用十年时间便完成了从政策扶持阶段到全球竞争主导者的历史性跨越，令众多传统汽车强国深感震动。(China's new energy vehicle industry has risen at lightning speed, completing the historic leap from a policy-supported stage to a dominant global competitor in just ten years, deeply shocking many traditional automotive powerhouses.)
• 在数字经济时代，消费者行为的飞速变迁对企业的市场洞察能力和反应速度提出了前所未有的高要求。(In the era of the digital economy, the lightning-fast changes in consumer behaviour have placed unprecedented demands on enterprises' market insight capabilities and speed of response.)

Don't Say

• 飞速 as a standalone adjective directly modifying a noun — 飞速 functions as an adverb and should precede a verb or verbal phrase; say 飞速发展的行业 (an industry developing at lightning speed) rather than 飞速行业 (a lightning-speed industry), which sounds unnatural

Origin & History

飞 (to fly) + 速 (speed) — to move at the speed of flight — extremely fast

Cultural Context

Generation: All ages

Social background: Universal