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immediately

UK/ɪˈmiː.di.ət.li/US/ɪˈmi.di.ɪt.li/
adverbA22 meaningsVery common — you will meet it every day · #780 of 15,258neutral

Immediately means right now, with no delay at all. Come here immediately. The effect was immediate.

It sits at the strongest end of a scale that runs through soon, shortly and at once, and it is more formal than straight away, which is what people actually say. It also means directly in position or sequence: immediately behind the house, immediately after the war, with no gap between. That spatial use is common in writing and is often missed. Note the spelling, which has two m's and an e in the middle, and which is among the most misspelled adverbs in English.

Definitions of immediately

  1. 1adverbimmediatelyAt once, with no delay.A2

    “Ring me immediately if anything changes.”

    synonyms: at once, instantly, straight away

  2. 2adverbdirectlyDirectly, with nothing in between.B2

    “The shop is immediately opposite the station.”

Too few real examples of this word to estimate which sense is commonest.

immediately is a manner of timing.

Also accepted in games: instantly, at once

Where it comes from

  1. Middle English

    immediatly

  2. English, today

    immediately

From Middle English immediatly, equivalent to immediate + ly.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Everyday Adjectives

Practise this word

immediately in the wild

  • Rear admiral is usually immediately senior to commodore and immediately below vice admiral.

    Rear admiral

  • However, many businesses are not paid immediately; they build up inventories of goods and acquire buildings and equipment.

    Balance sheet

  • In other words, businesses have assets, and so they cannot, even if they want to, immediately turn these into cash at the end of each period.

    Balance sheet

  • In matrices (1) and (2) the second squeeze executes immediately after the first.

    Non-simultaneous double squeeze

  • In sports contracts, the full amount of signing bonuses is not always paid immediately, but spread out over time.

    Signing bonus

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

Related words

  • mediate
  • mediator
  • immediate
  • mediation