immediate

Immediate is an adjective with several related senses. It most commonly means occurring without delay or intervening steps, as in an immediate response or an immediate decision. It can also describe closeness in space or relation, such as the immediate vicinity or one’s immediate family, meaning those people closest to you. In addition, it can emphasize directness or firsthandness, as in immediate experience or an immediate observation. The adverb form is immediately.

Etymology and relation to other terms: Immediate comes from Middle English immediat, via Middle French and Latin immediatus, from in- “not” + medius “middle,” literally “not mediated” and thus direct or proximal.

Usage and nuances: In temporal sense, immediacy stresses the need for prompt action or the absence of a waiting period, often in urgent or emergency contexts. In spatial usage, it indicates nearness or proximity. In causation, the immediate cause is the direct, primary factor responsible for an effect, contrasted with mediating or distant causes. In epistemology, immediacy refers to direct or noninferential awareness. In computing and programming, an immediate value (or immediate operand) is a constant encoded directly in an instruction rather than fetched from memory, enabling faster access and compact code.

Examples: an immediate deadline; the immediate family; the immediate cause of the accident; a program that uses an immediate value in an instruction.

See also: immediacy, immediateness, immediate value.