Other forms: easier, easiest
Easy means it takes no great effort — you do it without struggling. An easy question, an easy walk to the shop, a jar that opens on the first twist.
The word softens as it moves: an easy chair is comfortable, an easy manner is relaxed and pleasant, an easy pace is unhurried, an easy life is one without money worries. As an adverb it lives inside fixed phrases only — take it easy, go easy on the salt, easy does it, easier said than done. Everywhere else the adverb is easily: she won easily, never 'she won easy'. In British English, 'I'm easy' means I do not mind either way, said about which film or which pub. One use to leave alone: calling a person easy is an old insult about their morals.
1adjectiveeasyNeeding little effort or skill.~82%
“The exam was easier than anyone expected.”
synonyms: simple, straightforward
2adjectivefreeFree from worry, pain or hardship; comfortable.~2%
“They had an easy life once the mortgage was paid.”
3adjectiverelaxedRelaxed and unhurried in manner or pace.~14%
“He has an easy way with strangers.”
4adverbfixedIn fixed phrases, gently and without hurry or force.~2%
“Go easy on the brakes in this weather.”
Shares are an estimate: a language model read 8 sentences found in the wild and placed 7 of them on a sense (1 were unclear) — a count of our sample, not a measurement of English.
Also accepted in games: simple
Easy has two parents. One is Middle English ese, 'ease', with -y on the end; the other is Old French aisié, 'at ease, at leisure', from aise, which meant elbow room and opportunity. It then swallowed an older English word, ethe, which already meant easy. Room to move and nothing pressing on you — that is where the word starts.
Proto-Indo-European
*(H)yeh₁-
Middle English
esy
English, today
easy
Built from
From Middle English esy, eesy, partly from Middle English ese (“ease”) + -y, equivalent to ease + y, and partly from Anglo-Norman eisé from Old French aisié (“eased, at ease, at leisure”), past participle of aisier (“to put at ease”), from aise (“empty space, elbow room, opportunity”), of uncertain origin. See ease. Merged with Middle English ethe, eathe (“easy”), from Old English īeþe, from Proto-Germanic auþuz, from Proto-Indo-European h₂éwtus, from Proto-Indo-European h₂ew- (“to enjoy, consume”). Compare also Old Saxon ōþi, Old High German ōdi, Old Norse auð-, Icelandic auð- (adverb), auð-, all meaning "easy." More at ease, eath.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA