Poised

How to spell poised

6 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce poised

What does poised mean?

1. adjectiveCalm, self-assured, and gracefully composed in manner.
2. adjectiveBalanced and ready; on the verge of doing something.

Poised in a sentence

• She stayed remarkably poised throughout the difficult interview.

• The company is poised to launch its new product next month.

• The young presenter seemed confident and poised in front of the camera.

• The runner crouched at the line, poised for the starting gun.

Where does poised come from?

Language of origin: French

This word grows from the noun and verb 'poise', which English took from Old French 'pois' (a weight) and the verb 'poiser' or 'peser', meaning 'to weigh'. Those French forms descend from the Latin 'pensare', a frequentative of 'pendere', meaning 'to weigh' or 'to hang', the same root that gives us 'pendant' and 'pension'. The earliest English sense was literally about weight and balance, so to be 'poised' was to be held in equilibrium, neither tipping one way nor the other. From that physical balance the figurative meanings grew: a person who is calm and self-controlled seems perfectly balanced, and something held balanced is ready to move the instant it is released. The 'oi' spelling preserves the French vowel and is the main thing to remember, since the word sounds nothing like its spelling would suggest to a careless writer.

How the word is built

• pois- (from poise: to balance, weigh)
• -ed (past participle / adjective suffix)