What's the difference between
and
Enter two words to compare and contrast their definitions, origins, and synonyms to better understand how those words are related.

Composure vs Complacency - What's the difference?

composure | complacency |

As nouns the difference between composure and complacency

is that composure is calmness of mind or matter, self-possession while complacency is a feeling of contented self-satisfaction, especially when unaware of upcoming trouble.

composure

English

Noun

  • Calmness of mind or matter, self-possession.
  • * Milton
  • We seek peace and composure .
  • * I. Watts
  • When the passions are all silent, the mind enjoys its most perfect composure .
  • *
  • “Did you want anything, ma’am?” I enquired, still preserving my external composure , in spite of her ghastly countenance and strange exaggerated manner.
  • * {{quote-news
  • , year=2011 , date=September 2 , author= , title=Wales 2-1 Montenegro , work=BBC citation , page= , passage=Montenegro's early composure was shaken by that set-back and a visibly buoyed Wales nearly added a second goal when Bale broke past two defenders and fired a long-range shot that Bozovic tipped over}}
  • * {{quote-book
  • , year=1798 , author=Giacomo Casanova , title=The memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt , chapter=92 citation , passage=He began to lose his composure , and made mistakes, his cards got mixed up, and his scoring was wild.}}
  • (obsolete) The act of composing, or that which is composed; a composition.
  • * Evelyn
  • Signor Pietro, who had an admirable way both of composure [in music] and teaching.
  • (obsolete) Orderly adjustment; disposition.
  • * Woodward
  • Various composures and combinations of these corpuscles.
  • (obsolete) frame; make; temperament
  • * Shakespeare
  • His composure must be rare indeed / Whom these things can not blemish.
  • (obsolete) A combination; a union; a bond.
  • (Shakespeare)
    (Webster 1913)

    Synonyms

    * (calmness) equanimity * (calmness) See also

    complacency

    English

    Alternative forms

    * complacence

    Noun

    (complacencies)
  • A feeling of contented self-satisfaction, especially when unaware of upcoming trouble.
  • *
  • There was something pathetic in his concentration as if his complacency , more acute than of old, was not enough to him any more. When, almost immediately, the telephone rang inside and the butler left the porch Daisy seized upon the momentary interruption and leaned toward me.
  • * Addison
  • Others proclaim the infirmities of a great man with satisfaction and complacency , if they discover none of the like in themselves.
  • An instance of self-satisfaction.