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
Related Words
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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Lesson 17
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Black Brother, Black Brother
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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.
Her long term goal is not only to clean waterways but also to recycle the collected plastic into safer bioplastic materials, including composite plastic films.
From Science Daily • May 12, 2026
"We're trying to infer processes from incomplete clues, often with very limited data collected by missions that are extraordinarily expensive and infrequent."
From Science Daily • May 12, 2026
And unlike many prices collected in the CPI, rent and OER are based on survey panels that are conducted every six months.
From Barron's • May 11, 2026
She also collected other perks along the way.
From BBC • May 10, 2026
“I do not know, but the information I have collected suggests she is back at the lab.”
From "A Rover's Story" by Jasmine Warga
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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.