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immediate

adjective

Simple meaning

Happening right away, instantly, with no delay.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

ihmeedeeuht

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US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ɪˈmidiət

This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.

IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

adjective

  1. Happening right away, instantly, with no delay.

  2. Very close; direct or adjacent.

  3. Manifestly true; requiring no argument.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
B1 · Intermediate
Frequency
Common
Typical Use
Everyday English

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: Happening right away, instantly, with no delay.

Used this way, immediate is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.

Emotional tone
Neutral
Formality
Neutral
Intensity
Not strongly marked
How common
Moderately common
Connotation
No strong connotation
Usage feel
Neutral and straightforward

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

immediate familyimmediate vicinityimmediate futureimmediate effectimmediate actionimmediate attentionimmediate postimmediate response

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Word family

Words built from the same root.

  • immediatelyadverbDerived adverb

    Without delay or hesitation.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

  • immediate apprehensionnounCompound term

    Immediate intuitive awareness.

  • immediate constituentnounCompound term

    A constituent of a sentence at the first step in an analysis: e.g., subject and predicate.

  • immediate memorynounCompound term

    What you can repeat immediately after perceiving it.

  • immediate paymentnounCompound term

    Prompt payment for goods or services in currency or by check.

  • immediate allergynounCompound term

    An allergic reaction that becomes apparent in a sensitized person only minutes after contact.

More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

Sense: happening right away or instantly or with no delay

quick

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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.