balance — OET

balance

noun

1 I tripped and lost my balance:

stability, equilibrium, steadiness, footing.

▷antonyms instability.

2 the way to peace and some kind of personal balance:

composure, assurance, self-assurance, self-control, calmness, coolness, cool head;

ease, tranquillity, serenity, imperturbability, impassivity, equanimity, nonchalance, confidence, self-confidence, self-possession, sureness;

poise, dignity, aplomb, presence of mind, nerve, sangfroid, countenance, collectedness, suaveness, urbanity, elegance;

informal cool, unflappability.

▷antonyms nervousness.

3 the obligations of political balance in broadcasting:

fairness, justice, impartiality, egalitarianism, equal opportunity;

parity, equity, equilibrium, evenness, symmetry, equipoise, correspondence, uniformity, equality, equivalence, similarity, levelness, parallelism, comparability.

▷antonyms imbalance.

4 this stylistic development provides a balance to the rest of the work:

counterbalance, equipoise, counterweight, stabilizer, compensation, recompense, ballast, makeweight;

archaic countercheck.

5 a girl was weighing material on a balance:

scale(s), weighing machine, weighbridge.

6 the landlord demanded payment of the balance of the rent:

remainder, outstanding amount, rest, residue, difference, remaining part/number/quantity.

□ in the balance

the aircraft's future is in the balance after this crash:

uncertain, unknown, undetermined, unsettled, unresolved, unsure, pending, in limbo, in no man's land, up in the air, at a turning point, critical, at a critical stage, at a crisis;

debatable, open to question, in doubt;

unpredictable, unforeseeable, incalculable, speculative, unreliable, untrustworthy, undependable, risky, chancy;

informal dicey, hairy, iffy;

British, informal dodgy.

□ on balance

their allegation is, on balance, substantially correct:

overall, all in all, all things considered, taking everything into consideration/account, by and large, on average, for the most part, mostly, mainly, in the main, on the whole, in general, generally, generally speaking, largely, to a large extent, to a great degree.

verb

1 she balanced the book on her head:

steady, stabilize;

poise, level, prop, position.

2 he balanced his radical remarks with more familiar declarations:

counterbalance, balance out, cancel, cancel out, offset, even out/up, counteract, counterpoise, countervail, equalize, neutralize, nullify, compensate for, make up for;

rare equilibrize.

3 a country's payments for imports and receipts for exports must balance:

correspond, agree, tally, match up, concur, coincide, be in agreement, be consistent, equate, be equal, harmonize, be in harmony, be compatible, be consonant, be congruous, be in tune, dovetail, correlate;

informal square;

North American, informal jibe.

4 it is a matter of balancing advantages against disadvantages:

weigh, weigh up, compare, evaluate, consider, assess, appraise, estimate.

balance Oxford Dictionary of English