ease
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
Letters
4 characters
Language
English
word origin
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Detailed reference entry for the English word "ease", 4-letters, with pronunciation in International Phonetic Alphabet notation, etymology traced through Germanic and Romance roots where applicable, common misspelling variants catalogued from Hunspell error dictionaries, and usage frequency ranked against the top 100,000 English words in the Wordfreq corpus. PlainSpell covers English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German spelling with confusable-pair detection that highlights visually and phonetically similar words. This entry for "ease" includes synonyms, antonyms, homophones, and cross-language translation pointers sourced from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org extract. Whether you are verifying the correct spelling of "ease" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
ease is aEnglishnoun. It means: Lack of difficulty; the ability to do something easily. Pronounced /iːz/. It ranks #4,015 in English word frequency. Often confused with ES and ee.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | ease |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /iːz/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #4,015 |
| Misspellings tracked | 4 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for ease is 4 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /iːz/. Corpus data places it at rank #4,015 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text.Wiktionary records 12 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 4 documented wrong-spelling variants for ease, with forms such as "aese", "eaes", and "easse". Each variant represents a distinct typo pattern that appears often enough in corpora to be worth flagging, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution.It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "ES", "ee", "eat", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English ese, eise, aise, from Anglo-Norman ese (“ease”), from Old French eise, aise (“elbow room; opportunity”), of uncertain and obscure origin. Apparently related to Provençal ais, Italian agio and asio, Sicilian aciu and Portuguese azo. Somet… Root origin matters for spelling because borrowed morphemes (Greek, Latin, Old French, Old English) carry their source-language orthographic conventions into modern English, which is why historical etymology is often the cleanest predictor of whether a cluster like "-ough", "-eau", or "-tion" will appear. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct English form is ease, spelled E-A-S-E, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1Lack of difficulty; the ability to do something easily.
- 2Comfort, a state or quality lacking unpleasantness
- 3Comfort, a state or quality lacking unpleasantness
- 4Comfort, a state or quality lacking unpleasantness
- 5Comfort, a state or quality lacking unpleasantness
- 6Comfort, a state or quality lacking unpleasantness
- 7Relief, an end to discomfort
- 8Relief, an end to discomfort
- 9Relief, an end to discomfort
- 10Relief, an end to discomfort
- 11A convenience; a luxury.
- 12A relief; an easement.
Etymology
From Middle English ese, eise, aise, from Anglo-Norman ese (“ease”), from Old French eise, aise (“elbow room; opportunity”), of uncertain and obscure origin. Apparently related to Provençal ais, Italian agio and asio, Sicilian aciu and Portuguese azo. Sometimes ascribed to Vulgar Latin *āsia or *āsium, possibly from Latin ānsa (“handle, haft”) or Frankish *ansiju (“handle, loophole, eyelet; cup-handle; arms akimbo, elbow room”), but more often derived from Vulgar Latin *adjace(m), from Latin adjacēns (“adjacent, neighbouring”), present participle of adjaceō (“lie next to, border on”), though the forms and senses are difficult to trace clearly. Alternatively, possibly from a non-Latin source such as Germanic or Celtic on the basis of the conflicting forms which appear in various Romance languages. Compare Old English īeþe (“easy”), Gothic 𐌰𐌶𐌴𐍄𐌹 (azēti, “ease; pleasure”), *𐌰𐌶𐌴𐍄𐍃 (*azēts, “easy”), Breton eaz, ez (“easy”), Irish adhais (“easy; leisure”). See also eath. The verb is from Middle English esen, ultimately of the same origin.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: aese,eaes,easse,esae
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
Relative frequency of common misspelling types for ease
Misspelling Variants of "ease"
Frequency rank: #4,015 in English
Frequently Asked Questions
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Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter E in our English index: