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instantly. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
instantly, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
instantly in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
instantly you have here. The definition of the word
instantly will help you to be more precise and correct when speaking or writing your texts. Knowing the definition of
instantly, as well as those of other words, enriches your vocabulary and provides you with more and better linguistic resources.
English
Etymology
From instant + -ly.
Pronunciation
Adverb
instantly (not comparable)
- At once; without delay.
When the neighbours' dog barked, ours instantly replied with a howl.
1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter V, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:Then we relapsed into a discomfited silence, and wished we were anywhere else. But Miss Thorn relieved the situation by laughing aloud, and with such a hearty enjoyment that instead of getting angry and more mortified we began to laugh ourselves, and instantly felt better.
2022 January 12, Benedict le Vay, “The heroes of Soham...”, in RAIL, number 948, page 43:But signalman Bridges was never to answer driver Gimbert's desperate question. A deafening, massive blast blew the wagon to shreds, the 44 high-explosive bombs exploding like simultaneous hits from the aircraft they should have been dropped from. The station was instantly reduced to bits of debris, and the line to a huge crater.
- (archaic) Urgently; with insistence.
c. 1602, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Troylus and Cressida”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :Sir, my lord would instantly speak with you.
- (obsolete) At the same time.
c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Fourth, ”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :As if he mastred there a double spirit
Of teaching, and of learning instantly
Synonyms
Translations
at once
- Albanian: menjëherë (sq)
- Armenian: please add this translation if you can
- Bulgarian: веднага (bg) (vednaga), незабавно (bg) (nezabavno)
- Catalan: instantàniament
- Chinese:
- Mandarin: 立即 (zh) (lìjí)
- Czech: okamžitě (cs), ihned (cs)
- Esperanto: tuj (eo)
- Finnish: välittömästi (fi), heti (fi), oikopäätä, oitis (fi)
- French: instantanément (fr)
- Georgian: მაშინვე (mašinve), მყისიერად (mq̇isierad), უმალ (umal), ეგრევე (egreve)
- German: unmittelbar (de)
- Greek: αμέσως (el) (amésos)
- Hindi: हाथों हाथ (haathon haath)
- Hungarian: azonnal (hu), rögtön (hu), nyomban (hu), tüstént (hu), egyszeriben (hu)
- Ido: quik (io)
- Indonesian: seketika (id)
- Kazakh: дереу (dereu)
- Khmer: ភ្លាម (km) (pliem)
- Latin: iugiter
- Malay: serta-merta
- Manchu: ᡠᡨᡥᠠᡳ (uthai)
- Maori: tangetange
- Mongolian: please add this translation if you can
- Norwegian:
- Bokmål: momentant
- Nynorsk: momentant
- Old English: ǣdre
- Polish: natychmiast (pl), od razu (pl), momentalnie (pl), błyskawicznie (pl)
- Portuguese: instantaneamente (pt)
- Romanian: instant (ro)
- Russian: сра́зу (ru) (srázu)
- Scottish Gaelic: anns a' bhad, sa bhad, gu grad
- Spanish: al instante, al tiro (es), instantáneamente (es)
- Telugu: తక్షణము (te) (takṣaṇamu)
- Thai: ทันที (th) (tan-tii)
- Turkish: tezden (tr), hemen (tr), anında (tr), derhâl (tr)
- Ukrainian: за́раз (uk) (záraz)
- Vietnamese: tức thì (vi)
|
urgently; with insistence
Translations to be checked
Conjunction
instantly
- As soon as, directly.
I phoned instantly I heard you were back.