List of 426 Sets of Synonyms - How they Differ - Total of 2307 Words - 78

SYNONYMS: confidence, assurance, aplomb, self-confidence, self-possession.
These nouns denote a feeling of emotional security resulting from faith in oneself.

Confidence is a firm belief in one's powers, abilities, or capacities: You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face.
Assurance even more strongly stresses certainty and can suggest arrogance: Can a scientist explain an abstruse theory with such assurance?
Aplomb implies calm poise: It is native personality, and that alone, that endows a man to stand before presidents or generals, or in any distinguished collection, with aplomb.
Self-confidence stresses trust in one's own self-sufficiency: The most vital quality a soldier can possess is self-confidence.
Self-possession implies composure arising from control over one's own reactions: In life courtesy and self-possession . . . are the sensible impressions of the free mind, for both arise . . . from never being swept away, whatever the emotion, into confusion or dullness.