Serenely dignified American state figure (4)
I believe the answer is:
calm
'serenely dignified american state figure' is the definition.
The definition and answer can be both human attributes as well as being singular nouns.
Perhaps you can see a link between them that I don't see?
'state figure' is the wordplay.
'state' becomes 'ca' (abbreviation for California).
'figure' becomes 'lm' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'ca'+'lm'='CALM'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for calm that I've seen before include "Peaceful, not excited" , "Still - force 0 on the Beaufort scale" , "Imperturbable, soothe" , "Cool, composed" , "Controlled, not agitated" .)