instantaneous
adj.happening or done immediately, without any delay. You use this to describe something that occurs in a split second.
adj.occurring or completed in an instant; characterized by immediate action or effect. Often used in technical or scientific contexts to describe processes with no perceptible duration.
“The new messaging app provides instantaneous communication.”
“The driver's reaction to the obstacle was instantaneous, preventing what could have been a serious accident.”
“In the digital age, we have become accustomed to the almost instantaneous retrieval of information, which has fundamentally altered our expectations of service and response times.”
Typically used as an attributive adjective before a noun; often non-gradable in technical contexts.
Learners sometimes confuse the adjective 'instantaneous' with the noun 'instant' and try to use it with a prepositional phrase.
“Despite the internet’s capacity for instantaneous interaction, followers have proved a poor replacement for friends.”
“I suspect relatively soon offsides will be almost fully automated, which probably makes sense so long as it’s almost instantaneous.”
From New Latin īnstāntāneus, from Latin īnstantem.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.