Word.ws English Dictionary

easier said than done

easier said than done adjective: easy to propose, but difficult to accomplish.

Adjective

easier said than done (comparative form only)

  1. (comparative-only, idiomatic) Easy to propose, but difficult to accomplish.
    • Which is a thing more easily said, than made good in the way of doing.1858, Thomas Carlyle, History of Friedrich II of Prussia, called Frederick the Great, volume 1, page 288
    • Scott Parker was desperately urging England's players to keep possession - but it was easier said than done amid waves of Ukraine attacks and it needed a penalty area block from the Tottenham midfield man to thwart Devic.2012 June 19, Phil McNulty, “England 1-0 Ukraine”, in BBC Sport
    Antonyms:
    piece of cake

Antonyms of easier said than done

Questions about easier said than done

What does easier said than done mean?
Easier said than done means easy to propose, but difficult to accomplish.
What part of speech is easier said than done?
Easier said than done is an adjective.

Words near easier said than done in the dictionary

  1. Eashes
  2. EASI
  3. easie
  4. easied
  5. easier
  6. easier said than done
  7. easier than falling off a log
  8. easier-peasier
  9. easierly
  10. easies
  11. easiest

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: easier said than done (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-easier said than done.ogg.

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