at once

English

Alternative forms

• attonce (obsolete)

Etymology

From at + once.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA: /ət ˈwʌns/

Adverb

at once (not comparable)

1. (obsolete) In one group; together.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, III.4:

     Those two great champions did attonce pursew / The fearefull damzell with incessany payns [...].

2. (idiomatic) At the same time; simultaneously.

   Can you pat your head and rub your belly at once?

   He tried to eat four cookies at once.

3. (idiomatic) Immediately; now; right away.
   • 1918, W. B. Maxwell, chapter 3, The Mirror and the Lamp:

     One saint's day in mid-term a certain newly appointed suffragan-bishop came to the school chapel, and there preached on “The Inner Life.”  He at once secured attention by his informal method, and when presently the coughing of Jarvis […] interrupted the sermon, he altogether captivated his audience with a remark about cough lozenges being cheap and easily procurable.

   Tell the doctor to come at once. She is having a baby.

Translations

at the same time

• Albanian: përnjëherësh (sq)
• Catalan: a la vegada (ca)
• Czech: najednou (cs)
• Dutch: tegelijk (nl), ineens (nl), tegelijkertijd (nl)
• French: en même temps (fr), à la fois (fr)
• German: auf einmal (de), gleichzeitig (de)
• Greek: ταυτόχρονα (el) (taftóchrona) (taftoxrona), με μιας (el) (me mias) (me mias)

• Hungarian: egyszerre (hu)
• Norwegian: på en gang (no), samtidig (no)
• Russian: одновременно (ru) (odnovrémenno, odnovreménno)
• Serbo-Croatian: истовремено (sh) (istovremeno), одједном (sh) (odjednom)
• Spanish: a la vez (es)
• Swedish: samtidigt (sv), på samma gång (sv)
• Telugu: ఒకే సారి (te) (okE saari)

immediately

• Albanian: menjëherë (sq)
• Arabic: حالاً (ar) (Haalan)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 馬上 (cmn), 马上 (cmn) (mǎshàng), 立刻 (cmn) (lìkè)

• Dutch: meteen (nl), direct (nl), dadelijk (nl), ineens (nl)
• Finnish: heti (fi), välittömästi (fi), viipymättä (fi), hetimmiten (fi), pikimmiten (fi), oitis (fi)
• French: tout de suite (fr), immédiatement (fr)
• German: sofort (de)
• Greek: αμέσως (el) (amésos) (amesos)
• Hungarian: azonnal (hu), menten (hu), rögtön (hu), tüstént (hu)

• Japanese: すぐに (ja) (sugu-ni)
• Norwegian: straks (no), med én gang (no)
• Polish: zaraz (pl), od razu (pl)
• Russian: сразу (ru) (srázu), немедленно (ru) (nemédlenno), сейчас же (ru) (sejčás že), тут же (ru) (tút že)
• Scottish Gaelic: anns a' bhad (gd), sa bhad (gd), gu grad (gd)
• Serbo-Croatian: одмах (sh) (odmah)
• Spanish: enseguida (es), ahora mismo (es)
• Swedish: genast (sv), med en gång (sv), omedelbart (sv), direkt (sv), på direkten (sv)
• Turkish: derhâl (tr), çabucak (tr), hemen (tr), tezden (tr)

Anagrams

• acteon
• octane