Immediate means happening right now, without any delay or gap in time. When a teacher asks for your immediate attention, they mean this very second, not in five minutes. When you press a light switch and the bulb glows, that's an immediate response.

The word can also mean closest or most direct. Your immediate family usually includes your closest relatives, like parents and siblings. Your immediate neighbors are the ones right next door, not the family three houses down the street.

Sometimes people use immediate to describe reactions that happen so fast they seem automatic. If you touch a hot stove, your immediate reaction is to pull your hand back. You don't think about it or plan it: your body responds instantly. That split-second quality captures what makes something truly immediate. There's no pause, no waiting, no space between cause and effect.

The opposite of immediate is delayed or eventual. A problem that needs immediate attention can't wait until tomorrow. An immediate solution solves things right away, while a long-term plan takes weeks or months to work.