immediate Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. adjective satellite of the present time and place
    • the immediate revisions
  2. adjective satellite very close or connected in space or time
    contiguous.
    • contiguous events
    • immediate contact
    • the immediate vicinity
    • the immediate past
  3. adjective having no intervening medium
    • an immediate influence
  4. adjective satellite immediately before or after as in a chain of cause and effect
    • the immediate result
    • the immediate cause of the trouble
  5. adjective satellite performed with little or no delay
    quick; straightaway; prompt.
    • an immediate reply to my letter
    • a prompt reply
    • was quick to respond
    • a straightaway denial

WordNet

Im*me"di*ate adjective
Etymology
F. immédiat. See In- not, and Mediate.
Definitions
  1. Not separated in respect to place by anything intervening; proximate; close; as, immediate contact.
    You are the most immediate to our throne. Shak.
  2. Not deferred by an interval of time; present; instant. "Assemble we immediate council." Shak.
    Death . . . not yet inflicted, as he feared, By some immediate stroke. Milton.
  3. Acting with nothing interposed or between, or without the intervention of another object as a cause, means, or agency; acting, perceived, or produced, directly; as, an immediate cause.
    The immediate knowledge of the past is therefore impossible. Sir. W. Hamilton.
    Syn. -- Proximate; close; direct; next.

Webster 1913