instantly
- 1At once; without any delay.
The app responds instantly to every tap.
She recognized him instantly, even after twenty years apart.
Similarimmediately, straightaway, promptly, directly
Oppositeslowly, gradually, eventually, later
Note
Speed is the core of the modern word, and it reaches past verbs. A dog replies instantly, but a footballer's ability to run at defenses can also be instantly striking. There the adverb sharpens an adjective to mean 'from the very first moment.' It does not take degrees, since nothing happens more instantly than something else. Soften or stress the phrase instead: almost instantly.
- 2As soon as; used to connect a clause to an action that follows it without delay.
Instantly the doors opened, the crowd surged forward.
He answered the email instantly it arrived.
Similarimmediately, directly, once
Note
The adverb put to work joining clauses, and it needs no helper word: I phoned instantly I heard you were back, with no 'that' or 'as' after it. The clause it introduces names the trigger, and the main clause names what followed. When that clause comes first, a comma closes it off. Directly works the same way, and as soon as is its plain paraphrase.
- 3Urgently and with insistence; pressing earnestly for something.
The ambassador demanded instantly that the treaty be signed, renewing the request each morning.
Sir, my lord would instantly speak with you.
c. 1602, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Troylus and Cressida”Note
An older meaning in which the force is pressure, not speed: to ask instantly was to ask earnestly and keep asking. Shakespeare's Troilus and Cressida has 'my lord would instantly speak with you,' and Florio's Montaigne of 1603 has a widow 'instantly urged' to remarry. It keeps company with verbs of asking and urging. A modern reader will hear the 'at once' meaning unless the context insists otherwise.
Less common meaning
- 4At the same time as something else; simultaneously.
As if he mastred there a double spirit Of teaching, and of learning instantly
c. 1597, William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Fourth,”Note
Here the adverb measures overlap, not quickness. In The First Part of Henry the Fourth, Shakespeare gives a man 'a double spirit / Of teaching, and of learning instantly,' meaning he does both together, not either one fast. The sense has died out. In older verse, check whether two things are happening side by side before reading it as the 'without delay' meaning.
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Origin
Formed from "instant" combined with the suffix "-ly."