immediacy

[ ih-mee-dee-uh-see ]

noun

, plural im·me·di·a·cies.

1. the state, condition, or quality of being immediate.
2. Often immediacies. an immediate need:

   the immediacies of everyday living.

3. Philosophy.
   1. immediate presence of an object of knowledge to the mind, without any distortions, inferences, or interpretations, and without involvement of any intermediate agencies.
   2. the direct content of the mind as distinguished from representation or cognition.

Word History and Origins

Origin of immediacy¹

First recorded in 1595–1605; immedi(ate) + -acy

Example Sentences

Dressed in street clothes, he brings vibrancy and an immediacy to the unadorned, moodily lit space.

From Washington Blade

So, the debates about early reading instruction have a renewed immediacy.

From Washington Post

This immediacy and authenticity is the reason Gilles Poupardin created Cappuccino.

From MIT Technology Review

Their first-person accounts have an immediacy that’s unusual in speeches at national meets, where competitors minted at summer debate camps tend to approach their topics with analytical detachment.

From Time

Developments like “buy online pick up in store” are strategic hybrids that combine e-commerce with the immediacy of local stores.

From Search Engine Land

More than anything else, what the first person perspective adds is a sense of immediacy.

From The Daily Beast

The Internet of Things promises to bring a new immediacy to the consumer experience.

From The Daily Beast

The barrage and immediacy of these images magnifies these horrors.

From The Daily Beast

The only difference between then and now is the immediacy of the access.

From The Daily Beast

It is that sense of immediacy, even in novels about the past, that you get from his fiction.

From The Daily Beast

Such a play has an immediacy and liveness that strongly appeals to those who delight to image forth the past.

From Project Gutenberg

But not all his followers had charged with his own bold immediacy.

From Project Gutenberg

Answer: If the school is ever really owned by the public, they will be discharged from public life with extraordinary immediacy.

From Project Gutenberg

Dead flesh it seems, with not a dream to bring Visions that better warm immediacy.

From Project Gutenberg

It is sufficient for us to know that he overcame the world, that the Godhead dwelt in a form of immediacy within his soul.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• closeness