Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Self-confident assurance; poise.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Self-possession springing from perfect confidence in one's self; assurance.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun Assurance of manner or of action; self-possession.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun self-confidence; poise; composure.
  • noun ballet stability; the basic law of ballet.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun great coolness and composure under strain

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[French, from Old French a plomb, perpendicularly : a, according to (from Latin ad-; see ad–) + plomb, lead weight (from Latin plumbum, lead).]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Borrowing from French aplomb

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Examples

Comments

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  • "They were the only local act to regularly perform two nights a month there when Boston wasn't on tour -- and the principal draw was Brad, who sang John Lennon, Paul McCartney and George Harrison songs with equal aplomb and never turned away an autograph-seeker afterward."

    March 11, 2007

  • Sad news, eh? My mom had tickets for an upcoming Beatlejuice show :(

    March 11, 2007

  • Such a straight-backed, leaden word.

    May 31, 2007

  • Really? I always thought of it as rather dashing. :-)

    June 1, 2007

  • one of my favoritest words.

    September 27, 2011

  • He put in his thomb, and pulled out...

    January 1, 2016