equipoise
Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
- noun Equality in distribution, as of weight, relationship, or emotional forces; equilibrium.
- noun A counterpoise; a counterbalance.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
- noun A state of balance; equilibrium.
Examples
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I am not a "follower" or "joiner," but the one thing I received that day was exactly what the word equipoise defines: a state of balance and poise.
Marjorie Hope Rothstein: What's Your Word Of The Year For 2011?
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Or would it be more powerful to leave the truth unknown, leave the play in equipoise, an exemplar of Todorov's fantastique?
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The weighty authority, however, of Sainte-Beuve, at first thrown into the scale that at length would sink, was thence withdrawn, and at last, if not resolutely cast upon the opposite side of the balance, was left wavering in a kind of equipoise between the one and the other.
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There are others in a kind of equipoise between good and ill; who are moved on the one part by riches or pleasure, by the gratifications of passion and the delights of sense; and, on the other, by laws of which they own the obligation, and rewards of which they believe the reality, and whom a very small addition of weight turns either way.
Note
The word 'equipoise' comes from 'equi-' ('equal') and 'poise'.
