immediate
- 1Taking place at once, instantly, with no delay.
The new policy had an immediate effect on traffic downtown.
Her immediate reaction was to call for help.
Similarinstant, instantaneous, prompt, swift, quick
Oppositedelayed, gradual, eventual, slow
Note
The time sense of a word built on a missing middle. Late Latin immediatus meant "without anything in between," from in- and mediatus, "in the middle." Here what is missing is any interval between cause and result. It usually stands before its noun, as in immediate results or immediate effect. Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra compresses it further: "Assemble we immediate council," a summons urgent enough to drop the article.
- 2Very near in space or relation; direct or adjacent.
Police searched the immediate vicinity for clues.
He is next in the immediate line of succession.
Similardirect, close, near, adjacent, nearest
Oppositedistant, remote, indirect
Note
The same missing middle as the "at once" meaning, now in space or kinship. Your immediate family and the immediate vicinity have nothing standing between them and you. Unlike the time sense, this one grades comfortably. Shakespeare's Hamlet has "the most immediate to our throne," next in line with no one between. Hayek's "immediate issues" are the ones close at hand rather than distant.
- 3Manifestly true; obvious without need for argument or proof.
For Descartes, the certainty of one's own existence is immediate.
The conclusion struck the jury as immediate, requiring no further explanation.
Similarself-evident, obvious, evident, manifest, intuitive
Note
Philosophy's version of the missing middle: a truth reached without the middle step of inference. The structure im- + mediate matters here, because mediate knowledge is knowledge gained through argument. Immediate does not mean easy or obvious at a glance. It says how something is known: directly, as soon as the terms are understood. It usually sits after a verb, as in "the certainty is immediate."
- 4In computing, of an operand or value, contained within the instruction itself instead of being stored somewhere else, such as in a register or memory location.
The assembler encoded the constant as an immediate operand.
An immediate value avoids an extra memory fetch during execution.
Note
Assembly programmers use it for a value that travels inside the instruction itself. The constant is written into the encoded instruction, so the processor needs no extra fetch from a register or memory address to use it. It almost always appears as immediate operand or immediate value. It contrasts with register and memory operands, which point to where a value lives rather than carrying the value.
- 5Designating a military transmission as urgent and requiring priority handling.
The dispatcher assigned the signal an immediate precedence.
All immediate traffic is processed before routine messages.
Note
A procedure word in military radio, spoken on its own to flag a call that cannot wait: "Bravo Three, this Bravo Six. Immediate!" As a precedence level it ranks above routine and priority traffic but below flash. It therefore tells the operator where the message goes in the queue, not merely that the sender is anxious.
- 6As an artillery fire-mission modifier, signaling an urgent need for fire: either immediate smoke or immediate suppression.
The forward observer ordered immediate suppression, and every gun fired its loaded rounds.
Calling immediate smoke, the team had the battery reload and fire smoke shells.
Note
On the gun line the word changes what happens to the ammunition, and it always comes paired with a mission type. Under immediate suppression, the guns fire whatever is already loaded and then switch to impact-fused high explosive, unless other fuses are specified. Immediate smoke means reloading with smoke first. Unlike the radio precedence word, which ranks a message, this one shapes the fire itself.
Practice
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Origin
From Old French immediat (modern French immédiat), borrowed from Late Latin immediātus ("without anything in between"), formed from Latin in- plus mediātus, the past participle of mediō ("to halve, to be in the middle"), from medius ("middle").