immediateim‧me‧di‧ate /ɪˈmiːdiət/ ●●● S3 W2 adjective 
Our immediate response to the attack was sheer horror. They promise immediate action to help the unemployed. If the eyes are affected, seek immediate medical attention.2[only before noun] existing now, and needing to be dealt with quickly: Let’s try and solve the most immediate problem. There is an immediate danger of war.3[only before noun] happening just before or just after someone or something else: The most immediate effect of retirement is a dramatic reduction in living standards. He promised that there would be no tax increases in the immediate future.4[only before noun] next to, or very near to, a particular place: It is a thriving shopping centre for the people who live in the immediate area.5immediate family people who are very closely related to you, such as your parents, children, brothers, and sisters
WORD ORIGINimmediate
Origin:
1300-1400 Late Latin immediatus, from mediatus ‘in between, separated’EXAMPLES FROM OTHER DICTIONARIES
- My immediate reaction was shock and horror.
- One immediate worry is money.
- Our immediate concern was to stop the fire spreading.
- Several homes in the immediate area of the volcano were evacuated.
- The immediate needs of the refugees are for warm clothing and clean drinking water.
- The benefits of the program have been neither immediate nor obvious.
- The UN demanded the immediate release of the hostages.
- This letter requires your immediate attention.
- But the immediate consequence of the prohibition of women in trading was clear to all: It kept women farther from power.
- His love and concern for his fellows was expressed in the most immediate, yet measured and sensitive way.
- Inside, Sammler felt an immediate descent; his heart sinking.
- Often such complex layouts lead to immediate confusion, but the manual gets you off the ground with some helpful suggested settings.
- Qiao Shi, the intelligence chief who had abstained in the martial law vote earlier, endorsed an immediate army crackdown.
- The group said it was acting quickly because it feared that the new law would have an immediate effect on the Internet.
Longman Language Activatorhappening or needing to be done immediately
· My immediate reaction was shock and horror.· This letter requires your immediate attention.· The immediate needs of the refugees are for warm clothing and clean drinking water.· One immediate worry is money.
happening immediately, without any delay or doubt: · The workers are being threatened with instant dismissal.take an instant dislike to somebody : · He took an instant dislike to LeRoy.
very nearly at the same time as something else happens, and often as a result of it: · Death from a massive heart attack was almost instantaneous.
COLLOCATIONS FROM THE ENTRY Our immediate response to the attack was sheer horror. They promise immediate action to help the unemployed. Let’s try and solve the most immediate problem. There is an immediate danger of war. The most immediate effect of retirement is a dramatic reduction in living standards. He promised that there would be no tax increases in the immediate future. It is a thriving shopping centre for the people who live in the immediate area.COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES He had a good working relationship with his immediate superior (=the person directly above him).
Our immediate response to the attack was sheer horror. They promise immediate action to help the unemployed. Let’s try and solve the most immediate problem. There is an immediate danger of war. The most immediate effect of retirement is a dramatic reduction in living standards. He promised that there would be no tax increases in the immediate future. It is a thriving shopping centre for the people who live in the immediate area.· The public wants immediate action to stop the terrorists.
(=that you hope to achieve quickly)· The immediate aim is to develop the travel business.
· The group has called for an immediate ban on fur farming.
(=your family and some close friends)· We didn’t tell anyone what had happened outside our immediate circle.
· Her two immediate concerns were to find a home and a job.
(=likely to happen very soon)· The passengers on the boat were not in immediate danger.
(=quick and sudden)· The announcement had an immediate effect on stock prices.
(=the building in which you live or work, and the area very close to it)· Most accidents happen to young children within the immediate environment of their home.
(=closest relations)· What if one of your immediate family were disabled?
(=very soon)· There will be no major changes in the immediate future.
(=that you need to achieve very soon)· Our immediate goal is to cut costs.
· The government called for an immediate halt to the fighting.
· A military attack may only have a short-term impact on terrorist activity.
· My first impression was that Terry’s version of the events was untrue.
(=the very recent past)· In order to understand the present, we must look at the immediate past.
(=what they are going to do next)· So what are your immediate plans after graduation?
(=which must be dealt with immediately)· Their immediate priority was to find somewhere to sleep that night.
· His first reaction was to laugh.
· When he was sentenced, his immediate response was to appeal.
· Keep trying even if your first enquiry produces no immediate result.
· We believe immediate steps could be taken to generate jobs.
(=the person who has their job or position next)· Valentinian's immediate successor, Petronius Maximus, was killed in 455.
He had a good working relationship with his immediate superior (=the person directly above him). (=the possibility that something bad will happen very soon)· The volcano erupted on Thursday but there is no immediate threat to nearby towns.
COLLOCATIONS FROM THE CORPUSADVERB· Indirect taxes can be varied more quickly and easily, taking more immediate effect, than can direct taxes.· I had a more immediate problem.· There were also more immediate factors that were specific to the 1990 contest.· But Brown wants a more immediate impact.· He believed that recession was a more immediate enemy than inflation and acted accordingly.· Of more immediate concern to them was the appalling reality that the nature and tempo of operations engendered.· A more immediate peril was her frail stupid desire to ask some sort of help from either Gildas or Ludens.· It would seem that involuntary affirmation could be commanded only on even more immediate and urgent grounds than silence.
· The most immediate effect of all this has been the announcement of increased mortgage rates.· Perhaps the most immediate challenge confronts Sen.· His love and concern for his fellows was expressed in the most immediate, yet measured and sensitive way.· This is what makes the most immediate impact on the hearer and arouses his empathy.· The most immediate of these was the demise of Lucy Ashdown.· The most immediate effect of his proposal would be to block gaming by the Salt River tribe.· In 1641, the Gaels rebelled again, this time against their most immediate oppressors, the Protestant planters.· The most immediate and obvious impact on group medical plans will be an increased cost to employers to provide those plans.
NOUN· With no words spoken the crowd parted before the old man, allowing him immediate access to the bar.· Interactive telecommunications increasingly give ordinary citizens immediate access to the major political decisions that affect their lives and property.· Those unable to gain immediate access to their offices were advised to go to Guildhall, where company representatives would be waiting.· As a consequence, only laboratories with immediate access to particle accelerators can carry out this sort of work.· Do you require immediate access to your money?· Switching on the overdrive channel, however, gave immediate access to the right stuff.· Memory-the part of the computer which stores information for immediate access.
· The Treasury was prepared to accept this provided there was no commitment to immediate action.· The message you conveyed to me was clear: immediate action must be taken.· I became eager for immediate action.· The generals and admirals said they had always been against the blockade as being too weak and now they wanted immediate action.· Student welfare officers became concerned about the intensity of Life at oxford University, and in todays report they urge immediate action.· But he did not propose immediate action, such as a hike in interest rates to cool the markets.· They say they now want their employers to take immediate action.· Following an hourlong hearing, a three-member panel of judges took no immediate action on the lawsuit.
· The situation in Kabul was extremely confusing in the immediate aftermath of Najibullah's removal.· The last time I had spoken to him was in the immediate aftermath of the coxless pairs final at the Atlanta Olympics.· Operation Resurrection, as it was called, was first mooted in the immediate aftermath of 13 May.· Something over two hundred vacancies resulted in the immediate aftermath and a trickle of further resignations followed for some years to come.· Furthermore, it had been alarmed at local initiatives taken in the immediate aftermath of the June war.· Impressions formed by investigators at the scene of a crime and in its immediate aftermath can not be repeated later.· Beyond 1945 and its immediate aftermath was the outline of a future permeated with hope.· In the immediate aftermath of annexation or conquest Euric's rule was far from pleasant.
· Try to think more positively about walks, and wake up to new opportunities outside your immediate area.· Police evacuated the immediate area and began a meticulous search for other bombs after the second explosion.· Outside the immediate area of commercialization, however, another phenomenon appeared.· Sparta offers delivery in the immediate area.· Easily Accessible: Downhayes is set in an area of small working farms with few public footpaths in the immediate area.· Maureen searched the immediate area, hoping to find the missing limb, but no luck.· The few burrows in this immediate area had never been allowed to develop fully.· The great majority of non-employees who commit crimes against business will live in the immediate area.
· It is a demand that begins to override the others, and to require immediate attention.· It was true that a major problem had just cropped up which demanded immediate attention.· In fact, Green Chemistry is published so attractively that it catches immediate attention of the readers.· When he put down the Moscow Dynamos and started to talk about himself, he got immediate attention.· But because he didn't receive immediate attention, he's likely to remain partially lame the rest of his life.· Surely there are more important illegal issues requiring immediate attention, i.e. assaults on the aged and small children.
· It is that representation in my brain that is the immediate cause of my actions.· The immediate cause of last week's blackouts was a large power plant suddenly going offline in Northern California.· Its immediate cause resides in two distinct but related issues.· In the last part of the poem he tells them that he has only discussed the immediate cause of diarrhea.· As to these immediate causes, the choice is straight forward.· The immediate cause of his first campaign was to support the town of Lodi, which had been subject to control by Milan.· The immediate cause for concern is that changes in the Sun's diameter are linked with changes in its heat output.
· A spokeswoman for President-elect Bush, said his press office was on holiday and had no immediate comment.· The Pentagon had no immediate comment on the letter.· There's been no immediate comment from the Gloucestershire Royal Hospital.· The university had no immediate comment, spokesman Bill Gordon said.· BAn Arco spokesman had no immediate comment.· Police officials in San Francisco had no immediate comment on the development.· Fokker declined immediate comment on teh Daimler move.
· My immediate concern on that first morning in Punta Arenas was to learn all I could about the ship.· Of more immediate concern to them was the appalling reality that the nature and tempo of operations engendered.· Your immediate concern is how to make yourself the candidate most likely to succeed!· The more immediate concern, namely, self-preservation, had made friends and benefactors of their former enemies.· Our more immediate concern in this section is with measurement as understood within variable analysis.· My immediate concern is that the tone of your coverage was very negative, speculative, and highly opinionated.· A more immediate concern is the danger that a monumental scientific advance could be commercialised.· The management of such a system was of immediate concern to the school, and support-staff involvement was considered necessary.
· To Dorcas's amazement, now that the immediate danger was over, she seemed to be quite enjoying it.· Its main action is to prepare us for short-term, immediate danger.· It was clear, even from the heavily edited pictures, that the lives of the police were not in immediate danger.· The judge said there was no evidence that the brothers were in immediate danger.· But the most chilling deduction from the fact of Bill Sweet's murder was the immediate danger to Jacqui.· They are probably the No. 1 immediate danger.· It is sufficient to know that the immediate danger from the rear has been cancelled out.· After three hours Hsu Fu was hauled out of immediate danger, but only just.
· However limited its immediate effects, the ideology of Enlightened Despotism was important in the long term.· It advanced the use of shock to cure anything by scaring it out of your body, with immediate effect.· Indirect taxes can be varied more quickly and easily, taking more immediate effect, than can direct taxes.· The group said it was acting quickly because it feared that the new law would have an immediate effect on the Internet.· On Feb. 20 the Volkskammer approved a new electoral law to have immediate effect.· The most immediate effect of his proposal would be to block gaming by the Salt River tribe.· The immediate effect of these changes can be easily exaggerated.· You need to determine whether the trend will extend beyond the immediate effect of the earnings statement.
· In architectural terms, it suggests that a design should not represent an international style but should respond to its immediate environment.· A vague feeling of disorientation or strangeness relative to the immediate environment. 3.· Is there something different about your immediate environment which may be causing you to feel unsettled?· The patient's cells have reacted to a trace of a protein in the food, or present in the immediate environment.· In the current series she moves out of the body and into its immediate environment, the domestic world.· This year the theme is the conservation of monuments and their immediate environment.
· The tumult of war had undoubtedly touched Leonard, though his immediate family were spared its direct horrors.· Cancer claimed the lives of her parents and hit 14 of 17 people in her immediate family.· Her husband and her immediate family live in Moscow.· Fidela Kirstein died in 1991; the couple had no children, and Kirstein left no other immediate family.· The brotherhood of man did not end with the immediate family of siblings at which it began.· My own camp was wedged between the two branches of my immediate family.· This impetus originated mainly from two previously noted sources: the user's immediate family and the police.· Oh, and I should probably start with your immediate family.
· If any sector commands attention for the immediate future of food, it is the women.· It seems reasonable to assume that he used his science to determine the probable course of the history of the immediate future.· While Stavrogin never gets to see Tikhon, the immediate future holds murder in store for Shatov.· Major changes, such as abolition of the program, appear unlikely in the immediate future.· The prospects for the immediate future are bleak.· By that time Ed had some fairly definite plans for his immediate future.· Now for the immediate future, and the various centenary celebrations which begin this weekend.· Now in his second major-league spring training Taylor is pretty sure of his immediate future.
· I too enlarged the material in Sur Incises, and the work had an immediate impact without my abandoning anything at all.· But the United States has demurred, lobbying only for senior positions that can have an immediate impact on U.S. interests.· Yet the immediate impact of the statute was much less dramatic than this longer-term picture might suggest.· With those expectations already incorporated in investors' thinking, Greenspan's remarks had only a small immediate impact on financial markets.· The immediate impact of this event was to dissuade other prelates from publicly defending the king.· There are few defensive backs who are expected to make immediate impact.· Few articles can have made such a great and immediate impact on both the theoretical and practical planes.· But Brown wants a more immediate impact.
· Edward accepted the immediate need to support Helen's decision and maintain Mrs Noble's good opinion of him.· It is not problem-solving oriented; and very often it has no relevance to the immediate needs of the society.· Users need not work through the exercises sequentially, but can choose according to immediate need.· If you tried to deal with all these immediate needs you were a lost man.· The immediate need is to expand the entire system.· She saw only the immediate need of a particular individual and tried to meet it then and there.· The statute requires, however, not a threat of immediate danger, but rather an immediate need to act to protect.· Not withstanding this, we have an immediate need to protect our property from the moment the slate falls.
· On the left were our immediate neighbours, the Guttentags.· Some of the players have short-term and perhaps ill-judged designs on the territory of their immediate neighbours.· Steve's immediate neighbours are terrific.· In Figure 3, the basic tree in the centre is surrounded by 8 of its 18 immediate neighbours in genetic space.· Its immediate neighbours see it as a bully.· Indeed it would be just as probable as a jump from insect to one of its immediate neighbours.
· Regional health authority officers insist they have no immediate plans to look at the possibility of merging districts.· Though ValuJet has no immediate plans to upgrade, it is thinking about the future.· At first, he appeared to have no immediate plans to take on the armed forces.· He has no immediate plans to retire, having reached a peak in his career.· Now he says he has no immediate plans for exit and has not ruled out a trade sale.· None of the banks has any immediate plan to change its rates.· Jim's spokesman Cliff Elson said there were no immediate plans for divorce.· The port authority says it has no immediate plans for developing more of Seal Sands.
· This, at least, suggested the possibility of other lands beyond those recognized by his immediate predecessor Hecataeus.· Politician, historian and writer of many biographies, he was our immediate predecessor, yielding the Green Study to me.· In some ways, however, Alexander was better prepared for the throne than either of his immediate predecessors.
· The immediate problem, however, lies in implementing such a system.· I had a more immediate problem.· But Jack Mason had solved the immediate problem for me.· Any threat to the vision in one eye is far more serious than the immediate problem.· The immediate problem for parents is what to tell them.· He seems to be suggesting the endowment as a quick solution to an immediate problem, but he knows better.· It should be particularistic and small scale and concerned with the immediate problems of a given institutional context.· This is not an immediate problem in the hectic process of establishing the great new structure.
· His immediate reaction was that there was an oil leak.· The State Department had no immediate reaction.· My immediate reaction, whether it be a man or a woman, is to think the worst of them.· The Republican National Committee had no immediate reaction to the Democrats' changes.· They need time to digest radical change, otherwise their immediate reaction is negative.· If he had a flaw, it was that he lacked the ability to question his own immediate reactions.· The children's immediate reaction was a sense of relief at having arrived somewhere.· To keep everyone happy press officer David Begg, from Glasgow, recorded immediate reactions.
· As an immediate response to the killing the police detained more than 200 people in the Zawiya al-Hamra district of Cairo.· The immediate responses to complaints made by Justice Department officials in the new administration seemed cold-blooded and callous.· His immediate response was to appeal.· Until recently, courts have resisted self-defence arguments unless the woman committed the crime in immediate response to battering.· His immediate response was to arrest 150 people for suspected links with Hamas's military wing, Izzadin el-Qassam.· David Blunkett's immediate response was absolutely right.· At times, these images may be so powerful as to demand an immediate response.· The immediate response was that Lewis had not deserved to lose and would be exercising his right to an immediate rematch.
· One immediate result of my departure from Berkeley was my giving up my flat by the school and going back to London.· The immediate result of the campus power struggle was that Knickerbocker was asked to leave at the end of the 1936-37 year.· I am happy to say that the change brought immediate results.· Thus the immediate result of a K / impact anywhere on Earth would be wildfire ignition over the entire planet.· The immediate result is a confrontation between an angry and bewildered Pharaoh and Abraham.· The Czech coup had another immediate result with immense long-range consequences.· If you decide to follow any of these suggestions, don't expect immediate results.· What was more important than immediate results, I figured, was my education.
· Restoring a damaged relationship with a superior Your most important working relationship is with your immediate superior.· Can teachers be disciplined for publicly criticizing their immediate superiors?· The managers generally failed to take advantage of a potentially valuable resource, their immediate superiors.· Clint Eastwood is usually threatened with dismissal in his detective movies, sometimes because his immediate superior is on the take.
· My tardiness prompted an immediate threat of a fine, but it never materialised.· Officials said there was no immediate threat of tsunami, a seismic ocean wave, which could be catastrophic to the area.· The immediate threat to the West may be inflation; the spectre in the shadows is deflation.· The most immediate threat is to bird life.· Although the gunman had her pinned down he wasn't her immediate threat.· The creation of States posed an immediate threat to the freedom of action of lesser rulers.· It claimed, however, that there appeared to be no immediate threat to humans or the environment.· The most immediate threat remains the current drought and the danger of a flood of refugees.
· Better have some O neg. sent up for immediate use as well.· Most significantly, Mirror papers introduced modern printing techniques, processed photos locally for immediate use and speeded up the presses.· While this step awaits technical advances, cleaner fuels for cars and lorries, such as methanol, are urged for immediate use.· Carry the hand far enough forwards for immediate use as a reverse punch.· The name and date were inserted in a decorative framework, this probably being kept standing for immediate use when sightseers arrived.· Why is it that most women will not go out of the house without bags loaded with objects of no immediate use?· The entries were not much immediate use to him.· Sums of money not required for immediate use can be put into a deposit account on which the bank will pay interest.
· When lines cross, focus upon the near line throws the far line out of focus in the immediate vicinity of the cross.· As they fire adenosine is produced and ends up floating around in the immediate vicinity of the neuron.· Unfamiliar environment Familiarity with an environment makes it less hazardous; for example people adjust spatially to avoid objects in their immediate vicinity.· It allowed us to discuss her even when we were within her immediate vicinity.· In the immediate vicinity, sensitive monitors relay readings back to the central control room.· Both mechanisms, however, cause indiscriminate damage in the immediate vicinity fo the neutrophil.· The stop serves a wider catchment than the immediate vicinity of West Richmond Street.· He is still in the immediate vicinity.
PHRASES FROM THE ENTRY
1happening or done at once and without delay: - Cancer claimed the lives of her parents and hit 14 of 17 people in her immediate family.
- Her husband and her immediate family live in Moscow.
- Instead she joined her immediate family for a service at the private chapel on the Althorp estate.
- My own camp was wedged between the two branches of my immediate family.
- Oh, and I should probably start with your immediate family.
- She was not going out at all and was communicating very little with her immediate family.
- She was respectfully requested to keep the fact he is on special assignment to herself and her immediate family.
- The brotherhood of man did not end with the immediate family of siblings at which it began.
Our immediate response to the attack was sheer horror. They promise immediate action to help the unemployed. If the eyes are affected, seek immediate medical attention.2[only before noun] existing now, and needing to be dealt with quickly: Let’s try and solve the most immediate problem. There is an immediate danger of war.3[only before noun] happening just before or just after someone or something else: The most immediate effect of retirement is a dramatic reduction in living standards. He promised that there would be no tax increases in the immediate future.4[only before noun] next to, or very near to, a particular place: It is a thriving shopping centre for the people who live in the immediate area.5immediate family people who are very closely related to you, such as your parents, children, brothers, and sisters