"instant" meaning in English

See instant in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

IPA: /ˈɪnstənt/ [UK] Audio: en-us-instant.ogg [US] Forms: instant, instants [plural]
Head templates: {{noun}} [POS TABLE]
  1. An instant is a very short time.
    Sense id: simple-instant-en-noun-~v4Cvj5K
  2. Instant x is x that is ready, or happens, very quickly (in an instant).
    Sense id: simple-instant-en-noun-WVHYqp4E Categories (other): Attributive modifiers
     
{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "instant",
      "raw_tags": [
        "Singular"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "instants",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "expansion": "[POS TABLE]",
      "name": "noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "She looked at me and for an instant, I thought she was her mother."
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "An instant is a very short time."
      ],
      "id": "simple-instant-en-noun-~v4Cvj5K"
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Attributive modifiers",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "I don't like instant coffee, but that's usually what I drink."
        },
        {
          "text": "With his first book, he was an instant success."
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Instant x is x that is ready, or happens, very quickly (in an instant)."
      ],
      "id": "simple-instant-en-noun-WVHYqp4E",
      "raw_tags": [
        "usually before a noun"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈɪnstənt/",
      "tags": [
        "UK"
      ]
    },
    {
      "audio": "en-us-instant.ogg",
      "raw_tags": [
        "Audio"
      ],
      "tags": [
        "US"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "instant"
}

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "instant",
      "raw_tags": [
        "Singular"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "instants",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "expansion": "[POS TABLE]",
      "name": "noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "She looked at me and for an instant, I thought she was her mother."
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "An instant is a very short time."
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "Attributive modifiers"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "I don't like instant coffee, but that's usually what I drink."
        },
        {
          "text": "With his first book, he was an instant success."
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Instant x is x that is ready, or happens, very quickly (in an instant)."
      ],
      "raw_tags": [
        "usually before a noun"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈɪnstənt/",
      "tags": [
        "UK"
      ]
    },
    {
      "audio": "en-us-instant.ogg",
      "raw_tags": [
        "Audio"
      ],
      "tags": [
        "US"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "instant"
}

Download raw JSONL data for instant meaning in English (0.8kB)

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-08-09 from the simplewiktionary dump dated 2025-08-03 using wiktextract (99a4ed9 and 3c020d2). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.