at once
- 1Without any delay; right now rather than at some later time.
The manager read the complaint and at once offered the customer a full refund.
If the patient's fever keeps rising overnight, call the clinic at once.
Similarimmediately, instantly, promptly, straightaway
Oppositelater, eventually
- 2At the same time, so that two or more things happen or are true together rather than one after another.
Her new novel is at once funny and deeply unsettling.
The juggler kept five clubs in the air at once while balancing on a narrow board.
Similarsimultaneously, together
Oppositeseparately, consecutively
Note
Two constructions share the meaning, and position tells them apart. After a number or a pair of actions, the phrase says they overlap: four cookies at once, pat your head and rub your belly at once. Before two descriptions joined by and, it says one thing is both: at once regal hostess and scrappy newshound, at once well informed and vatic. With neither cue, come at once tips toward the "right away" meaning.
- 3All together, forming a single group rather than acting separately.
And they all atonce begane to make excuſe. The fyrſt ſayd vnto him: I have bought a ferme / and I muſt nedes goo and ſe it / I praye the have me excuſed.
1526, [William Tyndale, transl.], The Newe Testamẽt (Tyndale Bible)Note
A sense that survives only in older texts, and it is easy to misread because the phrase itself lives on. Tyndale's 1526 New Testament has "they all atonce" beginning to make excuses. In Spenser's The Faerie Queene (1590), two champions "attonce" pursue a fearful damsel. Both set it as one word. A modern ear hears the "at the same time" meaning there, but the point is the company, not the timing.
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Origin
Formed from the words "at" and "once".