easy E₁A₁S₁Y₄

EASY means requiring little skill or effort, or being at ease. There is also a rowing sense, easy-oar, which tells a crew to stop pulling. The word is everyday vocabulary at rank 484, and its letters spell three other valid words.

EASY at a glance

• Four letters: E, A, S, Y.
• Scrabble value 7, with the Y supplying 4.
• Anagrams are YEAS, AYES and EYAS; neighbours are EAST, EASE and JASY.
• Frequency rank 484, count 177,337.

Which words can you make from the letters of EASY?

YEAS, AYES and EYAS all use the same four tiles. YEAS and AYES are the plural forms of yea and aye, both meaning a vote in favour. EYAS is an unfamiliar word for a young hawk.

Since every anagram scores 7 too, picking between them comes down to the board. All three end in S, which keeps the tail flexible for plays that run down the board.

A rack with E, A, S and Y lets you test all four words without changing a tile. That flexibility is why short, vowel-friendly tiles are valued in anagram games.

How rare are four-letter words that start with E?

Only 160 four-letter words begin with E, about 3 percent of the 5,577 total. By contrast, 264 end in Y, around 5 percent. That makes the E opening one of the narrower slices of the length, so a pattern search with a known E start returns a short list that is quick to scan.

Rhymes in spelling run longer: FANTASY, ECSTASY, GREASY, UNEASY and APOSTASY all share the -ASY tail.

What do the neighbours add?

EAST changes the Y to a T, EASE changes it to an E, and JASY is the rare one.

Check your game’s word list before using JASY. Losing the Y costs points: EAST and EASE are worth 4 each, which is 3 less than EASY, so the neighbours are better as hooks than as first choices.