instantly
UK/ˈɪnstəntli/
instantly adverb: at once; without delay.
Adverb
instantly (not comparable)
- At once; without delay.
- When the neighbours' dog barked, ours instantly replied with a howl.
- Then we relapsed into a discomfited silence, and wished we were anywhere else. But Miss Thorn relieved the situation by laughing aloud, and with such a hearty enjoyment that instead of getting angry and more mortified we began to laugh ourselves, and instantly felt better.1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter V, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC
- Synonyms:
- immediately, instantaneously
- Urgently; with insistence.
- Sir, my lord would instantly speak with you.c. 1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Troylus and Cressida”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and...
- Theoxena although she were instantly urged thereunto, could never be induced to marry againe.1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 27, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC
- At the same time.
- As if he mastred there a double spirit
Of teaching, and of learning instantlyc. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Fourth, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and...
- As if he mastred there a double spirit
Conjunction
instantly
- As soon as, directly.
- I phoned instantly I heard you were back.
instantly meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali
instantly in Hindi
- at once
- हाथों हाथ haathon haath
instantly in Tamil
- instantly, immediately after, at once
- உடன் uṭaṉ
instantly in Urdu
- آناً فاناً, بمجرد, چٹ, فوراً, پل بھر میں, پل مارتے
instantly in Bengali
- instantly, hurriedly
- অগৌণে ogōune
More languagesFewer languages
- instantly in Telugu
- తక్షణము takṣaṇamu
- instantly in Malayalam
- ഉടനെ, നിഷ്കർഷയോടെ, നിർബ്ബന്ധപൂർവ്വം, തീവ്രമായി
- instantly in Kannada
- ಕೂಡಲೇ
- instantly in Malay
- serta-merta
- instantly in Indonesian
- seketika
- instantly in Thai
- ทันที tan-tii
- instantly in Vietnamese
- tức thì
Examples of instantly in a sentence
- His ability to run at defences is instantly striking, but it is his clever use of possession that has persuaded some shrewd judges that he is an even better prospect than Theo Walcott.2011 November 10, Jeremy Wilson, “England Under 21 5 Iceland Under 21 0: match report”, in The Telegraph, archived from the original on 05...
- The station was instantly reduced to bits of debris, and the line to a huge crater.2022 January 12, Benedict le Vay, “The heroes of Soham...”, in RAIL, number 948, page 43:
Synonyms of instantly
Forms of instantly
| alternative form (rare) | enstantly |
|---|---|
| alternative form (obsolete) | instantlie |
| alternative form (obsolete) | instauntly |
Origin of instantly
From instant + -ly.
Questions about instantly
- What does instantly mean?
- Instantly means at once; without delay.
- What is instantly in Hindi?
- Instantly in Hindi is हाथों हाथ (haathon haath). See Instantly meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use instantly in a sentence?
- His ability to run at defences is instantly striking, but it is his clever use of possession that has persuaded some shrewd judges that he is an even better prospect than Theo Walcott.
- What part of speech is instantly?
- Instantly can be an adverb or a conjunction.
- How do you pronounce instantly?
- Instantly is pronounced /ˈɪnstəntli/ (UK).
Words near instantly in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: instantly (page history and authors); உடன் (Tamil) (page history and authors); instantly (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); অগৌণে (Bengali) (page history and authors); instantly (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); instantly (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). 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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-instantly.ogg.
Cite this entry: “instantly.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/instantly. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.