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.
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
“Part of what we’re trying to do is have that immediacy, like, you’re not many, many steps removed from the reader,” he said.
From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 18, 2026
"It's got an inevitability but not an immediacy about it," another said.
From BBC • Feb. 5, 2026
It does not have the immediacy that it did in the tunnel.
From "A Heart in a Body in the World" by Deb Caletti
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.
