collected

American  

[kuh-lek-tid] / kəˈlɛk tɪd /

adjective

1. having control of one's faculties; self-possessed.

   Despite all the turmoil around him, Bob remained calm and collected.

2. brought or placed together; forming an aggregation from various sources.

   the money collected to build an orphanage; the collected essays of Thoreau.

3. Manège.

   1. (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.

   2. (of a gait of such a horse) characterized by short, elevated strides.

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collected British  

/ kəˈlɛktɪd /

adjective

1. in full control of one's faculties; composed

2. assembled in totality or brought together into one volume or a set of volumes

   the collected works of Dickens

3. (of a horse or a horse's pace) controlled so that movement is in short restricted steps

   a collected canter

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collected Idioms  

1. see cool, calm, and collected.

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Related Words

See calm.

Other Word Forms

• collectedly adverb
• collectedness noun
• uncollected adjective
• well-collected adjective

Etymology

Origin of collected

First recorded in 1600–10; collect ¹ + -ed ²

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.

Example Sentences

"Well, we want the litter collected and also we want to see much more education of the public. You need to move on all these different fronts."

From BBC • Apr. 21, 2026

They compared four versions and collected nine months of performance data before selecting a final prototype, which they tested outdoors.

From Science Daily • Apr. 19, 2026

The Dodgers could not provide Emmet Sheehan enough run support and the team collected a rare 4-3 loss to the Rockies Saturday in Colorado.

From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 19, 2026

Data collected by the National Science Foundation in 2017 showed Chinese nationals were the least likely among foreign science and technology Ph.D. graduates to leave the U.S.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 19, 2026

Nim scrambled up and collected shirtfuls of putrid sea muck.

From "Nim’s Island" by Wendy Orr