promptly

adverb

prompt·​ly ˈpräm(p)t-lē 

ˈpräm-plē

1

: in a prompt manner : without delay : very quickly or immediately

I'm going to speak French again, something I learned in school and promptly forgot.

—Deanna Pai

Treatment is promptly resumed until the virus is suppressed again, and then stopped to see if the patient's immune system is able to keep the viral levels in check.

—Joan Stephenson

2

: exactly at a particular time or the correct time

She arrived promptly at 7:00 p.m. as we had agreed.

Synonyms of promptly

• immediately
• instantly
• now

Examples of promptly in a Sentence

shipped the package promptly so that it would arrive on time

Recent Examples on the Web

The cartoonish, Sims-looking game places you in the first-person perspective of a video store manager who makes sure shelves are promptly and properly stocked with new releases, helps customers find movies, and keeps track of inventory. —Mack Degeurin, Popular Science, 19 Mar. 2026

Meow Wolf’s sixth permanent exhibition comes on the heels of the immersive art creator’s 52,000-square-foot psychedelic art installation in Las Vegas, which was disguised as a dystopian grocery store called Omega Mart and promptly went viral on TikTok. —Los Angeles Times, 19 Mar. 2026

Each episode was handled promptly, quietly, in isolation. —Adam Ciralsky, Vanity Fair, 19 Mar. 2026

Javier Sanoja, the Miami Marlins’ super-utility player who had spent the first eight innings serving as Venezuela’s hype man in the dugout, entered as a pinch-runner and promptly stole second base. —Jordan McPherson, Miami Herald, 18 Mar. 2026

Word History

First Known Use

15th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1