Word.ws English Dictionary

equipoise

/ˈɛkwɪpɔɪz/

equipoise noun: a state of balance; equilibrium.

Noun

equipoise (countable and uncountable, plural equipoises)

  1. A state of balance; equilibrium.
    • Government was unnerved, confounded, and in a manner suspended. Its equipoise was totally gone.1796, Edmund Burke, A Letter from the Right Honourable Edmund Burke to a Noble Lord, on the Attacks Made upon Him and His Pension, […], London: […] J. Owen, […], and F[rancis] and C[harles]...
    • “An easy evasion”, retorted the excited bride, who had lost her mental equipoise.1869, T. S. Arthur, chapter IV, in After the Storm
  2. A counterbalance.
    • Perhaps that quality which existed, in spite of the equipoise against it, in Sir Howard, was fidelity in friendship.1838, [Letitia Elizabeth] Landon (indicated as editor), chapter XI, in Duty and Inclination: […], volume III, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 136
    • The cone's not fixed, it's hung by a chain from a lever, and balanced by an equipoise.1895 September 18, H[erbert] G[eorge] Wells, “The Cone”, in The Plattner Story and Others, London: Methuen & Co. […], published March 1897, →OCLC, page 188

Verb

equipoise (third-person singular simple present equipoises, present participle equipoising, simple past and past participle equipoised)

  1. (transitive) To act or make to act as an equipoise.
  2. (transitive) To cause to be or stay in equipoise.

Proper noun capitalized: Equipoise

Equipoise

  1. Market name for the anabolic steroid boldenone undecylenate.

equipoise meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Bengali and Malayalam

equipoise in Tamil

படிக்கட்டி

equipoise in Urdu

پسانگ, توازن, دھڑا کرنا

equipoise in Bengali

ভারসাম্য, সমতা

equipoise in Malayalam

evenness, equilibrium, balance
സമതോലനം, സമനില, സമതുലനാവസ്ഥ, സമം, സന്തുലിതാവസ്ഥ, തുലനം
counterbalance, counterweight, counterpoise
എതിർബലം, തുല്യഭാരം, തുല്യത, പ്രതിപ്രവർത്തനം, സ്ഥിരപ്പെടുത്തുന്ന ഉപകരണം

Examples of equipoise in a sentence

  • The words were not without emotion, and retained their level tone as if by a careful equipoise between imminent extremes.1878 January–December, Thomas Hardy, “The Figure against the Sky”, in The Return of the Native […], volume I, London: Smith, Elder, & Co....
  • I never saw him lose his state of equipoise.1927–1929, M[ohandas] K[aramchand] Gandhi, “Raychandbhai”, in The Story of My Experiments with Truth: Translated from the Original in...
  • To my mind, the textual arguments in this case are close to equipoise.2021, Ronald Mann, Justices to consider awards of costs of appellate litigation, SCOTUSblog (Apr. 20, 2021)
  • Her smiling equipoise is a statement of self-confident power against his sour fuming.2024 September 12, David Brooks, “How a Cultural Shift Favors Harris”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company...

Forms of equipoise

Noun
pluralequipoises
alternative formæquipoise
Verb
third-person singular presentequipoises
present participleequipoising
past participleequipoised
pastequipoised

Origin of equipoise

From equi- + poise.

Words formed from equipoise

Questions about equipoise

What does equipoise mean?
Equipoise means a state of balance; equilibrium.
What is equipoise in Tamil?
Equipoise in Tamil is படிக்கட்டி. See Equipoise meaning in Tamil.
How do you use equipoise in a sentence?
The words were not without emotion, and retained their level tone as if by a careful equipoise between imminent extremes.
What part of speech is equipoise?
Equipoise can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce equipoise?
Equipoise is pronounced /ˈɛkwɪpɔɪz/.
What is the plural of equipoise?
The plural of equipoise is equipoises.

Words near equipoise in the dictionary

  1. equipluves
  2. equipment
  3. equipmentman
  4. equipmentmen
  5. equipments
  6. equipoise
  7. equipoised
  8. equipoises
  9. equipoising
  10. equipolar
  11. equipollence

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: equipoise (page history and authors); Equipoise (page history and authors); equipoise (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); equipoise (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); equipoise (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); equipoise (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-equipoise.ogg.

Cite this entry: “equipoise.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/equipoise. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.