noun
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property law the right enjoyed by a landowner of making limited use of his neighbour's land, as by crossing it to reach his own property
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the act of easing or something that brings ease
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of easement
First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English esement, from Old French aisement, from aise ease + -ment -ment
Explanation
An easement is the right to use someone else's land. If you come home to find your neighbors having a party in your backyard, perhaps they have an easement to use it — although most likely they’re just rude. If someone has an easement on your land, they have a right to use or cross your land without your permission. For example, there may be a plot of land the military needs to move troops across. With an easement, the military can cross this land legally, even though the owner may not like it. Evidently, this practice has been going on for centuries; scholars think this word has been in use since the 1400s.
Vocabulary lists containing easement
Fast Food Nation
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An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States
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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.
See Examples For:
They are happening in a county supervisors’ meeting, where a farmer worried about a transmission easement and a planning board member worried about re-election decide whether a project gets built.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 22, 2026
She obtained landmark status in 1996 and donated an easement to the Los Angeles Conservancy, ensuring that it can’t be remodeled or torn down.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 21, 2025
"If they can win over just enough to clear enough hurdles to get the next easement or next little contract or permit approved, they know they'll be able to get their work done."
From Salon ● Aug. 20, 2024
At a cost of $5,000 to $20,000 for each easement, much of it going to pay lawyers, safeguarding history is not cheap.
From New York Times ● Jan. 30, 2024
He meant with your mind, and Will did it instantly, sensing the minute snags and then the minute easement as the edges lined up perfectly.
From "The Amber Spyglass" by Philip Pullman
He put some of the first conservation easements in the country on Hope Plantation and St. Phillips Island, according to “Last Stand.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 8, 2026
And much of the flatland area that McNeill views as most appropriate for development is restricted by open space easements purchased by the county in the 1990s.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 9, 2025
That means that any easements would have to be found within the bounds of the Windsor Framework.
From BBC ● Jan. 27, 2024
The pipeline had been installed in 1953 and, at the time, had received easements to do so from the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
From Salon ● Dec. 21, 2023
It would have been easily disposed of if the only rights which could be annexed to land were easements, such as a right of way.
From The Common Law by Oliver Wendell Holmes
Definitions 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.
