Word.ws English Dictionary

poised

/pɔɪzd/

poised adjective: possessing poise, having self-confidence. Also the simple past and past participle of poise.

Adjective

poised (comparative more poised, superlative most poised)

  1. Possessing poise, having self-confidence.
    Synonyms:
    unruffled
  2. Ready, prepared.
    • He stood there, poised to act, and then suddenly he drew his gun in a smooth arc.
    • Amir stated that Rabin was a "pursuer" who was poised to spill the blood of many Jews by giving up control over part of the West Bank2000, David Golinkin, “The Assassination Of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin Z"L”, in Responsa in a Moment, volume 3, page 89
  3. Balanced, in position, in equilibrium.
    • The Titanic stands on end, poised briefly for the plunge.1934 January, Hanson W[eightman] Baldwin, “R. M. S. Titanic”, in Harper’s Magazine, volume 168, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, section II, page 176, column 2

Also used as

poised is also the simple past and past participle of poise.

poised meaning in Arabic

poised in Arabic

ready, prepared
مُتَأَهَّب mutaʔahhab, ّمُسْتَعِدّ, جَاهِز jāhiz
balanced, in position, equilibrium
تَوَازُن tawāzun

Examples of poised in a sentence

  • He was a strapping youth poised on the brink of manhood.
  • The rock was poised precariously on the edge of the cliff.
  • She was a vigorous youth poised on the brink of womanhood.

All 40 example sentences with poised

Synonyms of poised

Forms of poised

comparativemore poised
superlativemost poised

Words formed from poised

Questions about poised

What does poised mean?
Poised means possessing poise, having self-confidence.
What is poised in Arabic?
Poised in Arabic is مُتَأَهَّب (mutaʔahhab), ّمُسْتَعِدّ, جَاهِز (jāhiz). See Poised meaning in Arabic.
What part of speech is poised?
Poised is an adjective.
How do you pronounce poised?
Poised is pronounced /pɔɪzd/.

Words near poised in the dictionary

  1. Poirots
  2. Poirrier
  3. Poirriers
  4. pois
  5. poise
  6. poised
  7. poiseless
  8. poiselessness
  9. poiser
  10. poisers
  11. poises

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: poised (page history and authors). 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: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-poised.wav.

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