The word **即刻** is a modern Chinese adverb meaning "immediately" or "at once," and it is formed through the compounding of two synonymous morphemes, both relating to immediate time. The first character, **即 (jí)**, carries the core meaning of "at once" or "promptly," while the second character, **刻 (kè)**, originally denotes a short, measured unit of time (like a "quarter" or a "moment"). When combined, they create a reinforced, emphatic term where **即** provides the sense of immediacy and **刻** specifies the brevity of the time frame, resulting in a word that vividly conveys the notion of "this very instant." This pattern of pairing semantically related characters to form a new, nuanced meaning is a common method of word formation in Chinese.