From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishimmediateim‧me‧di‧ate /ɪˈmiːdiət/ ●●● S3 W2 adjective 1 IMMEDIATELYhappening or done at once and without delay Our immediate response to the attack was sheer horror. They promise immediate action to help the unemployed. If the eyes are affected, seek immediate medical attention.2 [only before noun]NOW existing now, and needing to be dealt with quickly Let’s try and solve the most immediate problem. There is an immediate danger of war.3 [only before noun]AFTERBEFORE happening just before or just after someone or something else The most immediate effect of retirement is a dramatic reduction in living standards. He promised that there would be no tax increases in the immediate future.4 [only before noun]NEAR next to, or very near to, a particular place It is a thriving shopping centre for the people who live in the immediate area.5 → immediate family
Examples from the Corpus
immediate• Several homes in the immediate area of the volcano were evacuated.• Qiao Shi, the intelligence chief who had abstained in the martial law vote earlier, endorsed an immediate army crackdown.• This letter requires your immediate attention.• Our immediate concern was to stop the fire spreading.• Often such complex layouts lead to immediate confusion, but the manual gets you off the ground with some helpful suggested settings.• But the immediate consequence of the prohibition of women in trading was clear to all: It kept women farther from power.• Inside, Sammler felt an immediate descent; his heart sinking.• The group said it was acting quickly because it feared that the new law would have an immediate effect on the Internet.• The immediate needs of the refugees are for warm clothing and clean drinking water.• The benefits of the program have been neither immediate nor obvious.• My immediate reaction was shock and horror.• The UN demanded the immediate release of the hostages.• One immediate worry is money.• His love and concern for his fellows was expressed in the most immediate, yet measured and sensitive way.immediate response• At times, these images may be so powerful as to demand an immediate response.• This mailing resulted in an immediate response by over 20 companies, and further enquiries on an on-going basis.• Until recently, courts have resisted self-defence arguments unless the woman committed the crime in immediate response to battering.• The immediate responses to complaints made by Justice Department officials in the new administration seemed cold-blooded and callous.• As an immediate response to the killing the police detained more than 200 people in the Zawiya al-Hamra district of Cairo.• David Blunkett's immediate response was absolutely right.• The immediate response was that Lewis had not deserved to lose and would be exercising his right to an immediate rematch.• His immediate response was to appeal.immediate problem• Any threat to the vision in one eye is far more serious than the immediate problem.• But that doesn't solve the immediate problem.• I had a more immediate problem.• The actions to be described next are most effective in the here-and-now; they are designed to resolve immediate problems.• Water, the most obvious and important resource, was not an immediate problem.• But Jack Mason had solved the immediate problem for me.• This is not an immediate problem in the hectic process of establishing the great new structure.• Mercury's immediate problem is getting the limited London service working.immediate effect• It advanced the use of shock to cure anything by scaring it out of your body, with immediate effect.• On Feb. 20 the Volkskammer approved a new electoral law to have immediate effect.• The most immediate effect of all this has been the announcement of increased mortgage rates.• The most immediate effect of his proposal would be to block gaming by the Salt River tribe.• You need to determine whether the trend will extend beyond the immediate effect of the earnings statement.• The group said it was acting quickly because it feared that the new law would have an immediate effect on the Internet.• Indirect taxes can be varied more quickly and easily, taking more immediate effect, than can direct taxes.• This important volume, subsequently republished in parts, did not perhaps have the immediate effect that might have been expected.immediate area• Easily Accessible: Downhayes is set in an area of small working farms with few public footpaths in the immediate area.• Sparta offers delivery in the immediate area.• The great majority of non-employees who commit crimes against business will live in the immediate area.• Try to think more positively about walks, and wake up to new opportunities outside your immediate area.• Police evacuated the immediate area and began a meticulous search for other bombs after the second explosion.• The few burrows in this immediate area had never been allowed to develop fully.• Maureen searched the immediate area, hoping to find the missing limb, but no luck.• Outside the immediate area of commercialization, however, another phenomenon appeared.Origin immediate (1300-1400) Late Latin immediatus, from mediatus “in between, separated” 