Word.ws English Dictionary

instant

/ˈɪnstənt/

instant noun: a very short period of time; a moment.

Noun (1)

instant (plural instants)

  1. A very short period of time; a moment.
    • She paused for only an instant, which was just enough time for John to change the subject.
    • Thy life is long, Eternity is short. So short that, shouldst thou die and Eternity should pass, and after the passing of Eternity thou shouldst live again, thou wouldst say: ‘I closed mine eyes but for an instant.’1905, Lord Dunsany [i.e., Edward Plunkett, 18th Baron of Dunsany], The Gods of Pegāna, London: [Charles] Elkin Mathews, […], →OCLC, page 76
  2. A single, usually precise, point in time.
    • The instant the alarm went off, he fled the building.
    • Liftoff occurs the instant the bolts are released.
    Synonyms:
    minute, moment
  3. A beverage or food which has been pre-processed to reduce preparation time, especially instant coffee.

Adjective

instant (not comparable)

  1. (dated) Impending; imminent.
    • Impending death is thine, and instant doom.1703, Matthew Prior, an Ode to Colonel George Villiers
  2. (dated) Urgent; pressing; acute.
  3. (dated) Insistent; persistent.
    • Rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation; continuing instant in prayer.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Romans 12:12
    • January 2, 1827, Thomas Carlyle, letter to Mrs. Carlyle, Scotsbrig
      I am beginning to be very instant for some sort of occupation.
  4. Present; current; extant.
    • He received just two disciplinary reports prior to committing the instant offense, one in March 2019 for activating an alarm during a non-emergency situation, and one in May 2019 for failing to provide a urine specimen.December 28, 2019 Attorney Jeffery S. Levin, quoted in The Boston Globe, p. 3
  5. Occurring immediately; immediate; present.
    • I ſee no day to To day, the inſtant Time is alvvayes the fitteſt time.1645, Thomas Fuller, “Personall Meditations”, in Good Thoughts in Bad Times, […], Exeter, Devon: […] Thomas Hunt, →OCLC, section VIII, page 19
    • No one, however, would have anything to do with him, as Mr. Keeson's orders in those respects were very strict; he had often threatened any one of his employés with instant dismissal if he found him in company with one of these touts.1904–1905, Baroness Orczy [i.e., Emma Orczy], “The Hocussing of Cigarette”, in The Case of Miss Elliott, London: T[homas] Fisher Unwin, published 1905, →OCLC; republished as popular edition, London...
  6. Lasting for a short moment; momentary; short-lived.
  7. Very quickly and easily prepared.
    • instant coffee; instant noodles; instant mashed potato; instant photo
  8. (dated) Of the current month.
    • I refer to your letter of the 16th instant in regard to traffic disruption.
    • Vice-Admiral Kamimura reports that at dawn of the 14th instant, our squadron found, off Ulsan, the south-eastern coast of Corea, three ships of the Vladivostock squadron steaming southward.1904 August 17 [1904 August 13], “KAMIMURA'S REPORT.”, in Hongkong Daily Press, number 14,467, Hong Kong, sourced from Tokyo and Kamimura Hikonojō, →OCLC, page 2, column 5

Adverb

instant (not comparable)

  1. (poetic) At once; immediately.
    • He left the room for his relinquished sword, / And Julia instant to the closet flew.1819, Lord Byron, Don Juan, I.182

Noun (2)

instant (plural instants)

  1. instant camera

Verb

instant (third-person singular simple present instants, present participle instanting, simple past and past participle instanted)

  1. (obsolete, transitive) To urge, press (someone); to insist on, demand (something).

instant meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali

instant in Hindi

instant, blink of an eye
क्षण kṣaṇ
an instant, a moment
लमहा lamhā

instant in Tamil

உடனடி, உடன் நிகழும், கண நேர, கணம், நொடி

instant in Urdu

an instant, a moment
لمحہ lamha

instant in Bengali

ক্ষণেক, সময়, ক্ষণিক, পলক, ক্ষণ, চকিত
More languagesFewer languages
instant in Telugu
నిమిషము nimiṣamu
instant in Malayalam
കൃത്യസമയം, നിമിഷം, ആവശ്യമായ, ഉടൻവേണ്ട
instant in Kannada
ಚಿಟಿಕೆ, ಕ್ಷಣ, ಗಳಿಗೆ, ತತ್‌ಕ್ಷಣ
instant in Punjabi
ਇੰਸਟੈਂਟਿੰਗ
instant in Gujarati
ત્વરિત
instant in Sanskrit
क्षण kṣaṇa
instant in Tagalog
takda, takna
instant in Arabic
لَحْظَة laḥẓa
instant in Malay
segera
instant in Indonesian
instan
instant in Thai
สำเร็จรูป sǎm-rèt-rûup
instant in Vietnamese
chốc, chốc lát, giây lát, chút

Examples of instant in a sentence

  • Gone are all the days of instant romance / And the nights of slow goodbyes / It was a time of life when foxy was the dance / And then you got wise to all of my abilis1978, Bionic Boogie, “Hot Butterfly”, in Gregg Diamond Bionic Boogie – Hot Butterfly (performed by Luther Vandross):
  • Tarrant attained instant cult status in the community.2023 February 27, Luke Munn, “8chan's Playful Hate”, in Red Pilled - The Allure of Digital Hate, Bielefeld: Bielefeld University Press...

All 40 example sentences with instant

Synonyms of instant

30 more synonymsFewer synonyms

All synonyms of instant

Forms of instant

Noun
pluralinstants
alternative form (obsolete)instaunt
Verb
third-person singular presentinstants
present participleinstanting
past participleinstanted
pastinstanted

Plural of instant: instants

Origin of instant

From Middle English instant (“infinitely short period of time”), from Old French instant (“assiduous, at hand”, adjective), from Latin īnstāns, īnstantis (“present, pressing, urgent”, literally “standing near”), present active participle of īnstō (“to stand upon, be nearby”), from in- (“after”) + stō (“to stand”). Compare Old English instede (“immediately, on the spot, at once”). More at in, stand.

From French instant and Middle English instant, both from Old French, from Latin instans (“standing by, being near, present, also urgent, importunate”), present participle of instō (“to stand upon, press upon, urge, pursue, insist”), from in (“on, upon”) + stō (“to stand”); see state.

Proto-Indo-European *kh₂em-der. Proto-Indo-Iranian *kmáratider. Proto-Iranian *kamarāder. Ancient Greek καμάρα (kamára)bor. Latin cameralbor. English camera English instant cameraellip. English instant Ellipsis of instant camera.

Words formed from instant

Phrases with instant

2 more phrasesFewer phrases

Questions about instant

What does instant mean?
Instant means a very short period of time; a moment.
What is instant in Hindi?
Instant in Hindi is क्षण (kṣaṇ), लमहा (lamhā). See Instant meaning in Hindi.
How do you use instant in a sentence?
Gone are all the days of instant romance / And the nights of slow goodbyes / It was a time of life when foxy was the dance / And then you got wise to all of my abilis
What part of speech is instant?
Instant can be a noun, an adjective, an adverb or a verb.
How do you pronounce instant?
Instant is pronounced /ˈɪnstənt/.
What is the plural of instant?
The plural of instant is instants.

Words near instant in the dictionary

  1. instancies
  2. instancing
  3. instancing in
  4. instancings
  5. instancy
  6. instant
  7. instant camera
  8. instant cameras
  9. instant coffee
  10. instant coffees
  11. instant karma

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: instant (page history and authors); क्षण (Hindi) (page history and authors); instant (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); لمحہ (Urdu) (page history and authors); instant (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); నిమిషము (Telugu) (page history and authors); instant (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); instant (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); instant (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); instant (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-instant.ogg.

Cite this entry: “instant.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/instant. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.