immediacy
Americannoun
plural
immediacies-
the state, condition, or quality of being immediate.
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Often immediacies. an immediate need.
the immediacies of everyday living.
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Philosophy.
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immediate presence of an object of knowledge to the mind, without any distortions, inferences, or interpretations, and without involvement of any intermediate agencies.
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the direct content of the mind as distinguished from representation or cognition.
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Etymology
Origin of immediacy
First recorded in 1595–1605; immedi(ate) + -acy
Explanation
Use the noun immediacy to talk about the lighting-fast speed with which something happens. If you order pizza and see the delivery driver pull up in front of your house two minutes later, you'll be amazed at the immediacy of your pizza's arrival. Something that's immediate, or instantaneous, has the quality of immediacy. Another way to use this noun is to mean "directly," or "firsthand." For example, when people first viewed live news reports on television, they probably marveled at the immediacy of watching something as it was happening, directly and without delay. Immediacy has been in use since about 1600, and it comes from the adjective immediate, with its Latin root of immediatus, "without anything in between."
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
But in the immediacy it's a question of electoral tactics.
From BBC • Apr. 15, 2026
His linguistic gifts and poetic sensibility for the English language, then in its infancy, gave his translation a vibrancy, immediacy, charm and clarity that have never been matched.
From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 26, 2026
When I hear the word potluck, I am transported, with a kind of olfactory immediacy, to the basement of my grandmother’s church.
From Salon • Mar. 15, 2026
Alternative statutory paths remain available to the administration, while none confer the same breadth or immediacy as IEEPA.
From Barron's • Feb. 21, 2026
Pauline Hawthorne’s work, she learned, was known for its immediacy and its intimacy, for interrogating images of femininity and identity.
From "Little Fires Everywhere" by Celeste Ng
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
