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.
Earning a first DP World Tour win in 14 years - and effectively saving his job by doing so - would be enough to disturb the composure of most golfers.
From BBC ● Aug. 23, 2026
On one level, watching Collins navigate these attacks offers a masterclass in professional composure.
From Salon ● Jul. 29, 2026
Amid rows of camp beds and stacks of food supplies at a makeshift shelter in Bordeaux, thousands of tourists and locals try to regain their composure after fleeing wildfires sweeping through southwest France.
From Barron's ● Jul. 25, 2026
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
She behaved as naturally, with such discretion, that she did not lose her composure, not even when Aureliano dropped the ring as he tried to put it on her finger.
From "One Hundred Years of Solitude" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
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.
