without delay

Meaning

This formal phrase means immediately or without any postponement. It is commonly used in professional correspondence, legal contracts, and urgent business requests to emphasize that an action must be taken right away.

Examples

• Please submit the signed contract to our legal department without delay.

  Please submit the signed contract to our legal department without delay.

• The IT team resolved the server outage without delay to minimize downtime.

  The IT team resolved the server outage without delay to minimize downtime.

• Upon receiving your payment, we will dispatch the goods without delay.

  Upon receiving your payment, we will dispatch the goods without delay.

• Any safety concerns in the warehouse must be reported to management without delay.

  Any safety concerns in the warehouse must be reported to management without delay.

• We need to address these customer complaints without delay to protect our reputation.

  We need to address these customer complaints without delay to protect our reputation.

Common Mistakes

• ✗ Please reply to this email without delays.

  ✓ Please reply to this email without delay.

  The idiom is always singular ('without delay'), not plural ('without delays').

• ✗ We need to act without a delay.

  ✓ We need to act without delay.

  Do not use an indefinite article ('a') in this fixed prepositional phrase.

Related Expressions

Practice

• The shipment must be sent ___ to avoid penalties.

  💡 immediately, in a formal way

  Show answer

  without delay

• Please review the attached invoice and process the payment ___.

  💡 right away (formal)

  Show answer

  without delay