immediate
/ɪˈmiːdɪət
/adjective
1Occurring or done at once; instant: the authorities took no immediate action the book’s success was immediate...
- This in turn has triggered the disappearance of a system of symbols that once enabled immediate identification of a woman's status.
- Brown's response to this fundamental problem was immediate, once it had been brought to his attention.
- However, these concepts are introduced all at once with no immediate application for the student.
Synonyms
instant, instantaneous, on-the-spot, prompt, swift, speedy, rapid, quick, expeditious;
sudden, hurried, hasty, precipitate, abrupt;
lightning, whirlwind, overnight
informal snappy, p.d.q. (pretty damn quick)
literary fleet, rathe
rare alacritous
1.1Relating to or existing at the present time: the immediate concern was how to avoid taxes...
- Get people to voice their immediate current concerns or questions.
- This kind of analysis is really just the product of a false hindsight that tends to see the past through the lenses of the immediate present.
- More than the big picture, look at the immediate, present needs.
Synonyms
current, present, existing, existent, actual, extant;
urgent, pressing
archaic instant
2Nearest in time, relationship, or rank: no changes are envisaged in the immediate future his immediate superior in the department...
- Confident in their ability to manager without state support, and close to their immediate family, they tend to live in towns in the more prosperous Southern and Midland towns.
- He said about seven of the boy's immediate family and close friends had been given antibiotics.
- Both weddings have had about 30 guests - just immediate family and close friends - and both have used restaurants for their reception.
Synonyms
recent, not long past, just gone;
occurring recently
2.1Nearest or next to in space: roads in the immediate vicinity of the port...
- He also disputed the number of car parking spaces, which reputedly would be available in the immediate vicinity of the licensed premises.
- I make an attempt to fight the heavy-duty gravity imposed upon the immediate space around my body, and ease myself out of the bed.
- Actually, a baby lives in, and loves, her immediate space.
Synonyms
nearest, near, close, closest, next-door;
adjacent, adjoining, abutting, contiguous, proximate
2.2(Of a relation or action) without an intervening medium or agency; direct: coronary thrombosis was the immediate cause of death...
- It further held, allowing the Commissioners' appeal, that on the facts the requisite ‘direct and immediate link’ was not established.
- ‘So far in museum exhibitions, the visitor was not placed in immediate contact with the past,’ he wrote.
- The immediate connection between the ‘Void’ and our conceptions of chaos may not be explicit to many readers.
Synonyms
direct, primary
3 Philosophy (Of knowledge or reaction) gained or shown without reasoning; intuitive.Hume had shown that no immediate knowledge of causes is possible, for we have no impression of necessary connection....
- Knowledge that is immediate may supply the premises for the inference of further knowledge, but even immediate knowledge depends on coherence.
- The notion allows Heidegger to avoid giving primacy to non-theoretical immediate experience.
Derivatives
immediateness
/ noun ...- The new writing space carries the promise of networks of communication through the intuitive immediateness of the Word.
- Like her other work, it is rich with observation and flights of language, revealing how this sensibility is malleable enough to adapt to the death-row murderess without sacrificing its immediateness and power.
- Although he stresses specificity and immediateness, his analysis shows the interconnections among labor, the trade unions, and political parties.
Origin
Late Middle English (in the sense 'nearest in space or order'): from Old French immediat, or from late Latin immediatus, from in- 'not' + mediatus 'intervening', past participle of mediare (see mediate).