collected
Americanadjective
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having control of one's faculties; self-possessed.
Despite all the turmoil around him, Bob remained calm and collected.
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brought or placed together; forming an aggregation from various sources.
the money collected to build an orphanage; the collected essays of Thoreau.
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Manège.
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(of a moving horse) noting a compact pose in which the legs are well under the body, the head is arched at the poll, the jaw is relaxed, etc.
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(of a gait of such a horse) characterized by short, elevated strides.
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adjective
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in full control of one's faculties; composed
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assembled in totality or brought together into one volume or a set of volumes
the collected works of Dickens
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(of a horse or a horse's pace) controlled so that movement is in short restricted steps
a collected canter
Synonym Usage
See calm.
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of collected
Explanation
Use the adjective collected to describe a person who stays cool and calm, even under pressure. There are certain people who always seem completely self-possessed and unflappable no matter what is going on around them. You can describe these people as collected. If a kid throws up on the school bus and the driver is unruffled, he is collected. A confident, poised trapeze artist is also collected. If you're upset, you might say, "I need to collect myself," and once you have calmed yourself, you are collected.
Vocabulary lists containing collected
Somewhere Between Bitter and Sweet
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Black Brother, Black Brother
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Lesson 17
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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.
Savannah McDaid said she was shocked to discover four "metal pins embedded" in sweets collected by her three-year-old son after they returned home from trick-or-treating together.
From BBC ● Nov. 4, 2026
By testing specimens collected at different times, researchers could investigate when the pathogen arrived and how rapidly it spread.
From Science Daily ● Nov. 3, 2026
The two most recent batches of data were collected in 2022 and 2025, with the 2025 data being released just last month.
From MarketWatch ● Nov. 3, 2026
Oey said the company continues to be in dialogue with the Indonesian government, which in July lowered the cap on commissions collected by ride-hailing platforms from two-wheeled drivers to 8% from 20%.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 3, 2026
I keep shifting through the data I collected, searching for a pattern that will explain why I am stuck.
From "A Rover's Story" by Jasmine Warga
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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.
