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immediate

adjectivecommon in dialogue

  • United Kingdom//ɪˈmiː.dɪət//
  • United Kingdom//ɪˈmiː.d͡ʒɪt//
  • Canada//ɪˈmi.di.ɪt//
  • Canada//ɪˈmi.di.ət//
  • Australia//ɪˈmiːdi.ɪt//

Happening right away, instantly, with no delay.

adjective

  1. 1

    Happening right away, instantly, with no delay.

    Computer users these days expect immediate results when they click on a link.

    Assemble we immediate council.

    When Timothy and Julia hurried up the staircase to the bedroom floor, where a considerable commotion was taking place, Tim took Barry Leach with him. He had him gripped firmly by the arm, since he felt it was not safe to let him loose, and he had no immediate idea what to do with him.

  2. 2

    Very close; direct or adjacent.

    immediate family; immediate vicinity

    You are the most immediate to our throne,

    So long as he concerns himself with immediate issues he is rewarded with influence, material success, and popularity with those who up to a point share his general outlook.

  3. 3

    Manifestly true; requiring no argument.

  4. 4

    Embedded as part of the instruction itself, rather than stored elsewhere (such as a register or memory location).

  5. 5

    Used to denote that a transmission is urgent.

    Bravo Three, this Bravo Six. Immediate! We are coming under fire from the north from an unknown enemy, over!

  6. 6

    An artillery fire mission modifier for two types of fire mission to denote an immediate need for fire: Immediate smoke, all guns involved must reload smoke and fire. Immediate suppression, all guns involved fire the rounds currently loaded and then switch to high explosive with impact fused (unless fuses are specified).

    Hotel Two-Niner, this is Bravo Six. Immediate suppression at grid November-Kilo four-five-three two-one-five. Danger Close. I authenticate Golf Echo, over.

Etymology

From Old French immediat (French immédiat), borrowed from Late Latin immediātus (“without in-between, moderation”), from Latin in + mediātus, perfect passive participle of mediō (“to halve, to be in the middle”) (see -ate (adjective-forming suffix)), from medius (“middle”). By surface analysis, im- + mediate.

Forms

comparative
more immediate
superlative
most immediate
The neighbouring pagesAlphabetical order follows the rules of the language, not byte values: an accent decides only between two otherwise identical words, and Spanish files Ñ as a letter of its own.

Lexical content from Wiktionary, under CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source entry · Data version 2026-08-23

Rank among the words of the OpenSubtitles 2018 corpus — film and television subtitles, so spoken rather than written usage (CC BY-SA 3.0).