In a twinkling and words to that effect (4)

I believe the answer is:

soon

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'in a twinkling and words to that effect' is the definition.
Both the answer and definition are adverbs. Perhaps there's an association between them I don't understand?

This is the entire clue.

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(Other definitions for soon that I've seen before include "Before long" , "Early, in a short time" , "Shortly" , "in a minute" , "In the near future" .)

I've seen this clue in the Evening Standard.

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