composure
Americannoun
noun
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of composure
Explanation
When you stay calm under pressure, you keep your composure. Keeping your composure for a skinned knee? Easy. Keeping your composure during an avalanche? Not so easy. The word composure is from the related word composed, but don't think of the word in the musical sense. In this case, composed means calm. What's the difference between the two? Well, composed is an adjective, so you simply are composed. Composure, on the other hand, is a noun, so you can lose, keep, regain, or maintain your composure — your ability to stay calm. If you lose your composure, you're freaking out.
Vocabulary lists containing composure
Metamorphosis
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The Things They Carried
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Inside Out & Back Again
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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.
During a Thursday appearance on the popular talk show — where guests answer questions while eating chicken wings with increasingly spicy sauces — the actor struggled to keep his composure.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 24, 2026
That demeanour off the pitch was reflected in some brilliant performances on the pitch - great goals, leadership, flair, composure under pressure and more work off the ball than I've ever seen from him.
From BBC ● Jul. 20, 2026
Take a deep breath at the film’s start, because you won’t have a moment to retain your composure once Wain and Marino’s blissfully imaginative, “Wizard of Oz”-riffing odyssey of a screenplay gets going.
From Salon ● Jul. 12, 2026
Parliamentary elections, planned for September, have forced the Kremlin to maintain a strict sense of composure.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 28, 2026
Burton regained his composure and leaned on the bar.
From "Moon Over Manifest" by Clare Vanderpool
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.
