Immediate sensorimotor grounding of novel concepts learned from language alone

•We investigate whether novel concepts are grounded immediately upon learning.•Language/action interference is used to show sensorimotor grounding.•Immediate grounding is demonstrated for novel concepts (e.g., “bionic foot”).•Immediate grounding is demonstrated for novel words (e.g., ”mende  = bionic foot”).•Grounding is established indirectly via already-learned concepts.