ease
noun · verb
Simple meaning
Freedom from difficulty or hardship or effort.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
eezIPA pronunciation (US)
ˈiz
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
Freedom from difficulty or hardship or effort
“He rose through the ranks with apparent ease.”
Freedom from activity (work or strain or responsibility)
A freedom from financial difficulty that promotes a comfortable state
Freedom from effort; leisure, rest.
Lack of difficulty; the ability to do something easily.
Comfort, a state or quality lacking unpleasantness, particularly
verb
transitive
To free (something) from pain, worry, agitation, etc.
transitive
To alleviate, assuage or lessen (pain).
transitive
To reduce the difficulty of (something).
Move gently or carefully
“He eased himself into the chair.”
transitive
To move (something) slowly and carefully.
Lessen pain or discomfort; alleviate
“Ease the pain in your legs.”
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B1 · Intermediate
- Frequency
- Common
- Typical Use
- Everyday English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Freedom from difficulty or hardship or effort
Used this way, ease is a common word with a faintly unfavourable edge. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
“He rose through the ranks with apparent ease.”
- Emotional tone
- Slightly negative
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Moderate
- How common
- Common
- Connotation
- Critical or judgemental
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Nearby words
- easiness , rarer, so it draws attention
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
How It’s Used
The word’s distinct uses, one example each.
Freedomnoun
“He rose through the ranks with apparent ease.”
Alleviate / lessenverb
“Ease the pain in your legs.”
Moveverb
“He eased himself into the chair.”
More ways to use ease
- “He rose through the ranks with apparent ease.”noun
- “I am never at ease with strangers.”noun
- “He eased himself into the chair.”verb
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
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Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Word family
Words built from the same root.
The privilege of using something that is not your own (as using another's land as a right of way to your own land).
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: freedom from difficulty or hardship or effort
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.