accelerator vs activator

accelerator

noun
  • One who, or that which, accelerates. 

  • A pedal causing the vehicle to accelerate when it is pressed. 

  • A computer component using dedicated hardware to accelerate the processing and display of graphics. 

  • A muscle or nerve that speeds the performance of an action. 

  • An accelerator key. 

  • A device for causing acceleration. 

  • A device that accelerates charged subatomic particles; a particle accelerator. 

  • A light van to take mails between a post office and a railway station. 

  • A substance which speeds up chemical reactions. 

  • A chemical that reduces development time. 

activator

noun
  • One who, or that which, activates. 

  • Any chemical or agent which regulates one or more genes by increasing the rate of transcription. 

  • Something that activates a catalyst 

  • A type of effector that increases the rate of enzyme-mediated reactions. 

  • A type of dopant used in phosphors and scintillators. 

  • An agent that enables the flotation of a mineral or minerals. 

How often have the words accelerator and activator occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )