effortless
Americanadjective
adjective
-
requiring or involving little effort; easy
-
archaic making little effort; passive
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of effortless
Explanation
Something effortless is easy to do — or at least appears that way. Great basketball players make scoring three-point shots look effortless. If you always know just what to wear, you have an effortless sense of style. Effort is the work it takes to do something. Moving a couch and staying on a diet both require effort. If something is effortless, it takes no work at all to do. For example, lifting a feather is effortless. Writing may be effortless for some people, but difficult for others. Also, some things just look effortless. A great musician might make playing guitar sound effortless, but years of practice probably went into it. Experts make difficult things seem effortless.
Vocabulary lists containing effortless
Power Suffix: -less
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Stay Strong: Forc and Fort
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Unit 1: Telling Details
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Raman asked Lauren Perez-Rangel, her Latino outreach senior director, who read the full message in effortless Spanish.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 28, 2026
About 15% of Americans followed an intermittent-fasting diet last year, thanks in part to a push from biohackers and health influencers confidently touting it as the key to effortless weight loss.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 16, 2026
These videos, in particular, activate the reward circuitry of the brain with their novel, engaging and effortless nature, leading to instant and constant gratification.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 3, 2026
As the Multistrada gets rolling, the clumsiness gives way to a deeply balanced, pin-sharp precision and effortless, lock-to-lock agility.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 29, 2026
The agent did a few more dives, a backward twisting one-and-a-half, a half-gainer, and a beautiful soaring swan dive, all of them executed in what appeared to be an effortless manner.
From "The Milagro Beanfield War" by John Nichols
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Get a wordDefinitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
