Meaning & use
poise
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Meanings
noununcountable
A calm, confident way of behaving that stays steady even when things are difficult.
Grammar: Uncountable: she showed great poise.
Patterns
- with poise
- lose your poise
- show poise
She answered the tough questions with great poise.
The young pianist played with remarkable poise.
He kept his poise despite the shouting.
noununcountable
A balanced, graceful way of holding or moving the body.
Grammar: Used for physical grace, as in dance.
Patterns
- physical poise
- graceful poise
The dancer's poise made each step look easy.
He walked with the poise of an athlete.
Good poise helps when you stand on stage.
verbtransitive
To hold something steady and ready in position, or to be ready to act.
Grammar: Usually passive or with a ready adjective: poised to strike.
Patterns
- be poised to do something
- poise something over something
The cat was poised to jump onto the shelf.
She poised her pen over the page.
The team is poised to win the title.
Word forms
| third person singular | poises |
|---|---|
| past tense | poised |
| past participle | poised |
| -ing form | poising |
Common combinations
- remarkable poise
- The child spoke with remarkable poise.
- keep your poise
- Try to keep your poise during the interview.
- lose your poise
- He lost his poise when the lights failed.
- composure and poise
- Composure and poise are needed on stage.
- poised to
- The company is poised to expand.
Synonyms and how they differ
- composure
- Composure is mainly about staying calm inside, while poise also includes graceful bearing.
- grace
- Grace emphasizes elegance of movement, and poise adds self-control.
- self-assurance
- Self-assurance is about confidence, while poise is the calm way it shows.
- aplomb
- Aplomb is a more formal word for calm confidence in a tense moment.
Opposites
Word family
- poised adjective
- calm, balanced or ready to act
- unpoised adjective
- lacking calm balance
- counterpoise noun
- a balancing weight or force
Commonly confused: poise or poison? poise or pose?
poise vs poison
Poison is a harmful substance, and it looks and sounds close to poise but has no connection.
poise vs pose
Pose means to hold a position or to create a problem, while poise is balance and calm.
Practice
The speaker handled the heckling with great ___.
Choose one answer.
Poise means calm, confident control, which fits handling heckling. The other words are similar in spelling or sound but do not fit.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “poise”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.