1A horizontal plane or line with respect to the distance above or below a given point.

1. 1.1 A height or distance from the ground or another stated or understood base.
   高度
   storms caused river levels to rise

   暴风雨造成河水水位上升。

   Example sentencesExamples

   • Most North American cities will flood and sink when the polar ice caps melt and raise ocean levels.
   • Water levels on the lake were very low and conditions have not been very favourable for angling with few anglers fishing the lakes.
   • In a matter of hours, the water levels had risen to his window.
   • As soon as flood levels start to drop water will be fed back into the river along the new water course.
   • My studies also demonstrated that the rainfall, river flow and groundwater levels are increasing.
   • There was a slight rise in the river level of a few inches.
   • He sleeps three hours a night, wakes at six in the morning to monitor the state's reservoir levels.
   • Twelve trial holes were inspected last year to determine soil suitability and water table levels on the proposed site.
   • If river levels sink too low, barges could be grounded and agriculture thrown into chaos.
   • Mr Stainer said part of the plan included raising the level of the land to guard against flooding.
   • The rise of sea levels with the release of glacial waters at the end of the last ice age flooded the plain between what is now the UK and Europe.
   • Reservoir levels may look alarmingly low but water chiefs are confident the region is not facing a crisis.
   • During the summer months, decreases in river, lake and reservoir levels are likely to occur.
   • Flood levels in Ryedale were going down but yesterday's downpour could make it worse, experts claimed.
   • Continuous rain in the first week saw river levels rise and temperatures drop.
   • Lower dam levels lead to lower amounts of hydro power.
   • Sea levels were low because water was frozen in ice sheets in Antartica.
   • Groundwater levels rose and fell over a period of about 45 minutes.
   • Water passes in and out through channels between the islands as ocean levels change.
   • Riverside homeowners were keeping one eye firmly on the clouds today as river levels rose even higher through the night.

   Synonyms

   height, highness, altitude, elevation, distance upward
2. 1.2 A floor within a multistorey building.
   （多层建筑的）层
   Example sentencesExamples

   • Additionally, there are several new ‘malls,’ some of which are three or more levels with no parking facilities.
   • A woman died after jumping from the fifth level of a multi-storey car park.
   • Subterranean termites tunnel in moist soil to find wood, putting decks and lower levels of buildings at risk.
   • There are two bedrooms and a shower room on the upper level of the extension.
   • Being built on four levels with the ground floor reserved for secure parking, the flats will have panoramic views north across the Forth estuary to Fife.
   • The building will be joined at many levels to the main building.
   • The major landmarks of Paris are a bewitching sight from the various levels of the tower.
   • Also at this level is a granny flat with a television room, kitchenette, bedroom and shower room.
   • It has three levels with three reception rooms and four bedrooms.
   • The ground floor shops and upper ground level occupy an area of 4,563 sq ft each.
   • The new building has four levels, linked by a new lift as well as stairs.
   • The house had two levels and a flat roof, much like all the other buildings in the city.
   • Everything was spread out over five different levels with precious few staircases open to the public.
   • The contractor is to arrange for the carpets to be lifted from the ground and first floor levels and removed off site prior to work starting.
   • It was not intended that there would be balconies at first floor level around the edges of the deck.
   • There is a department store on the beach road, Ocean Plaza, which is still flooded at the lower level.
   • A different architect has designed each floor, giving each level a very different feel.
   • Wildlife often seek refuge from flood waters on upper levels of a home and may remain inside even after the water recedes.
   • Glass walkways connected the buildings to their neighbours and to the central building at three levels.
   • The first tidal wave caused damage to the bottom of the hotel, but it was the second wave, an hour and a half later, which wrecked the first few levels of the buildings.

   Synonyms

   floor, storey, tier, deck

2A position on a scale of amount, quantity, extent, or quality.

高失业率。

债务达到前所未有的高度。

1. 2.1 An intellectual, social, or moral standard.
   at six he could play chess at an advanced level

   他六岁时象棋就已经下到了高级水平。

   mass noun women do better at degree level

   在大学阶段女子更出色。

   Example sentencesExamples

   • Qualifications at both A-level and below and degree level are above the national average.
   • I think my performances have carried on at a level I am content with.
   • Jared has been voracious since then, reading well above his level, and everything he can get his hands on.
   • Classes must also be given to all children from primary to college levels with the assistance of the Education Department.
   • We can learn a great deal about the moral level of the reigning intellectual culture of the West by observing the reaction to this demand.
   • School-age children must go to school based on their appropriate levels.
   • Science and mathematics levels are each based on results from two written papers.
   • One slip and you are in trouble, and let's face it, at our level it will happen constantly.
   • Sean was happy with the honours English paper but thought the ordinary level maths paper was hard enough.
   • More than three-quarters of students at both levels secured an honour grade, while the numbers failing fell.
   • The work is reflective of a level way above what a 13-year-old would usually do.
   • In fact, students from low-income backgrounds could reach achievement levels comparable to their middle-class peers'.
   • In this decade the intellectual level of public debate was high.
   • This year Paul took his hobby to a new level when he set his sights on the Olympic Games in Athens.
   • Many a girl drops out even at the primary level because of social compulsions.
   • Decent educational levels will automatically lessen social problems and crime as well as boosting self esteem and confidence.
   • The higher the skill level the greater their likelihood of getting and keeping a job.
   • You may have always known his worth on an intellectual level, but now it becomes real to you.
   • The welfare of the people of Britain could not rise above a level set by the balance of people and land.
   • So would he like to get behind the camera on a professional level at some point?
2. 2.2 A position in a hierarchy.
   （实有或假想等级制度中的）档次，层级
   a junior level of management

   较低级的管理层。

   Example sentencesExamples

   • Authority in the firm is concentrated at senior levels of managerial hierarchies.
   • The rest are stuck at the lower and middle levels of the managerial hierarchy.
   • Important changes have also occurred in the middle levels of the class hierarchy.
   • That is definitely below director level but above executive club member.
   • It has become a challenging issue for policymakers both at the national and international levels to deal with.
   • The grain purchase programs determined at the national level were difficult to implement locally.
   • What does worry me personally is the trend away from engineers being employed at fairly high management levels.
   • It seeks to inform and facilitate decisions appropriate to different levels of government and to private citizens at home and at work.
   • At the lower levels of business activities within this sector are very small operations that employ as few as five employees at maximum.
   • At higher political levels, channels of communication are kept active and effective.
   • A spokesmen says, given the nature of the allegations, any inquiry would need to be at a national level.
   • Ideas matter to all of us who enter public life, particularly at the national level.
   • Here in Scotland, we have no comparable political leadership below the level of the Executive.
   • Democratic practice has to occur at the local level if it is to have any chance at the national level.
   • Though few have broken into the top echelons of power, the junior and middle management levels are full of women.
   • Based on age, the children are divided into the primary, intermediate, junior and senior levels.
   • All of the seniority levels recovered lower amounts in 1999 than the historical average.
   • This produces a mind-set that puts maids at the lowest level of the social structure.
   • That has been the judgment rendered at the highest levels again within the last few weeks without any qualification.
   • There were clear levels on the Roman social ladder, but not everyone could be - or wished to be - neatly categorised.

   Synonyms

   rank, standing, status, position

   echelon, station, degree, grade, gradation, stage, standard, rung, point, mark, step

   class, stratum, group, grouping, set, classification

   level of achievement, degree of competence

3Gaming
(in a video game) each of a series of stages of increasing difficulty through which a player may progress, completing one stage in order to reach the next.

1. 3.1 (especially in a role-playing game) each of a number of steps in the development of a character, who progressively acquires enhanced skills and abilities within the game as the player advances by completing tasks and earning points.
   you can easily take a character to level 20 in less than 15 hours and finish the campaign

4An instrument marked with a line parallel to the plane of the horizon for testing whether things are horizontal.

1. 4.1Surveying An instrument for giving a horizontal line of sight.
   〔测绘〕水准测量器
   Example sentencesExamples

   • Generally, the most accurate beach survey data are obtained using a surveying level.
   • A laser level is the modern way of doing surveying.

5A flat tract of land.

萨默塞特平原。

1Having a flat, horizontal surface.

我们到了平地上。

1. 1.1 (of a quantity of a dry substance) with the contents not rising above the brim of the measure.
   （干物质的量）与测量容器口齐平的
   a level teaspoon of salt

   一平匙盐。

   Example sentencesExamples

   • Add a level tablespoon of dried mint to the soup when you reheat it.
   • Split each pitta in half horizontally, and spread each with one level tablespoon of passata.
   • If the gravy lacks body, stir in 2 level teaspoons of cornflour for every ½ pint of liquid.
   • Put some olive oil in a shallow pan with a level dessertspoon of tomato purée.

2At the same height as someone or something else.

他的眼睛与她的齐平。

3Having the same relative position; not in front of or behind.

那车突然刹车，然后很快倒到和我平齐的位置。

1. 3.1British Having the same position or score in a contest.
   〈主英〉平局
   the two teams finished level on points

   在系列比赛结束时，两队积分持平。

   Example sentencesExamples

   • The fact that the team were still level at half-time acted as a spur to them.
   • The visitors drew level five minutes later.
   • The teams were level at the interval.
   • The three games took one and a half hours to complete with both players level on numerous occasions.
   • Three minutes later, the side were again level from another free.
   • Steve Bruce drew the teams level with a well-taken strike four minutes from the break.
   • A tense and low scoring first half left the teams level at the break.
   • Shortly before half-time, a timely goal put the teams level at the break.
   • All three teams are level on points.
   • The home side drew level ten minutes after the break.
   • The Livingston attacks were now far more menacing and they drew level two minutes later.
   • Montgomery's conversion brought the teams level with 30 minutes to go.
   • They drew level thanks to another questionable decision from the referee four minutes into the second half.
   • The final was a very close game and the teams were level at the end of normal time.
   • The sides were level five minutes later when Brian Kaye rose at the back post to head home a Gavin Holligan cross.
   • After drawing level Tyrone were stunned when Down scored their fourth goal.
   • Once again the Walsh Island men drew level this time from a penalty.
   • The sides were level on 11 points each.
   • He put over the ball for a great score to draw the teams level on three points each.
   • Both of these sides were level on points at the top of the table going into the game.

   Synonyms

   equal, even, drawn, tied, balanced, all square, on a level, in a position of equality
2. 3.2 Not having risen or fallen; unchanged.
   无变化的，持平的
   earnings were level at 17.5p a share

   每股收益持平于17.5便士。

   Example sentencesExamples

   • Wages have been level since 1973.
   • You can choose to receive a level income, or have your payouts rise in line with inflation.
   • Studios have seen level prices over the past three years with the average rental rate at €910 per month.
   • Shares were level from there and closed at $3.86.

4Calm and steady.

1with object Give a flat and even surface to.

合同工们开始为新的电站平整土地。

1. 1.1 Demolish (a building or town)
   夷平，摧毁
   bulldozers are now waiting to level their home

   推土机正等着夷平他们的家园。

   Example sentencesExamples

   • Yet there have also been recent earthquakes that have leveled entire villages, wiping out hundreds of children and families.
   • Fires still burned, but homes were charred and had been levelled to the ground.
   • A massive explosion in the air sent shockwaves through the town and leveled the few buildings that had survived.
   • Luxurious waterfront houses were levelled and smaller houses that lined the town's canals were blown into the water.
   • One report stated that approximately 90 per cent of the buildings were leveled.
   • It leveled the entire town and over 300 people were killed.
   • The explosion reportedly leveled two buildings, one of them a restaurant on a town on the Mexican side of the border.
   • Towns were levelled by tidal waves which left bodies wedged in trees as the waters receded, Indonesian officials and witnesses said.
   • Already entire streets of flats have been levelled to make way for more than 700 new homes, two new schools and a state-of-the-art health centre.
   • Two earlier strikes levelled buildings and hit a car park.
   • Around 80,000 people died immediately from the effects of the blast, and much of the city was leveled.
   • As well as levelling the town, the quake has also destroyed what remained of the ancient city and its sixteenth century citadel.
   • A third house was levelled in the nearby town of Dura.
   • All that do not have rounded roofs will be levelled to the ground.
   • Much of the town was leveled, and eight people were killed.
   • At one point, there was some concern about the need to level the four buildings.
   • The hotel was the first to reopen after the 1906 earthquake and fires leveled every hotel in the city.
   • One hundred and thirty mile per hour winds and waves 15 feet high leveled the town.
   • Everything was leveled to the ground, everything but what he had on his back.
   • Whole neighborhoods and districts were leveled in ferocious street fighting with tanks, rockets, and artillery.

   Synonyms

   raze, raze to the ground, demolish, flatten, gut, topple, lay waste, destroy, wipe out, blow up, blow to bits, bomb

   tear down, knock down, pull down, bring down, bulldoze, fell, dismantle, break up, wreck, pulverize, obliterate

2level off/outno object Begin to fly horizontally after climbing or diving.

1. 2.1 (of a path, road, or incline) cease to slope.
   （路、坡等）开始平直延伸
   the track levelled out and there below us was the bay

   铁路开始平直延伸，我们下方就是海湾。

   Example sentencesExamples

   • The track then levelled out and became somewhat cattle-churned near a farm.
   • Where the stony track turns sharp left and levels out, head straight on through a gate up along a track climbing to reach another gate at the top of the hill.
   • As the valley began to level out at the bottom, Lily started yelling as loud as she could.
   • The paved road beneath our feet is leveling out from the downhill, the effort required to maintain forward motion is increasing.
   • After about twenty feet of a steep hill, it sort of leveled out, into a narrow dirt road.
   • He rejoined us at the crest of the first ridge, where the wall leveled out and began a more gradual ascent to the peak.
   • The incline leveled out and the grass grew shorter.
   • The slope of the hill leveled off before I reached the bushes.
   • Where the track levels out, head left over a stile beside a wooden gate.
   • And where the hill levelled out to an even ground, a stonewall with walkways for sentries was built.
   • At the foot of the hill, as the path levels out and enters a fringe of larches, leave the narrow footpath and drop down to your right.
   • As they walked, the ground gradually began to level out and the trees thinned.
   • Finally the path levelled out.
   • After this the path levels out for about 400m before sloping down to a small car park by the side of the road.
   • The path slowly leveled off and they came to a large plateau.
   • The path levels out to provide expansive seaward views.
   • As the brightness increases, the floor of the passageway also begins to level out.
   • When the path levels out at a grassy section, after 100 yards look for a grass path to the left, leading to Stair Bridge.
   • The path zig-zags on, levelling off before the summit.
   • They stopped at the lip of the gorge, just before the slope leveled out.
2. 2.2 Remain at a steady level after falling or rising.
   inflation has levelled out at an acceptable rate

   通货膨胀稳定在可接受的比率上。

   Example sentencesExamples

   • After leveling off in the 1980s, crime fell sharply in the mid-1990s.
   • In contrast, wages have leveled off or fallen over the same period.
   • What they show is that the rapid influx of mothers with young children into the workplace has leveled off and fallen, slightly.
   • The growth is still much less than last year with prices beginning to level out.
   • I think house prices are going to level off and just stay steady but it depends on the interest rate.
   • The sharp increase in the percentage of children living with single parents that began around 1960 has leveled off and was about the same in 2003 as it had been in 1990.
   • And most important, the precipitous rise in fatherless households has finally begun to level off.
   • Within months, the market had soared and is only now beginning to level out.
   • House price growth had begun to level out as a direct result of diminishing affordability.
   • Salaries dropped by an average of 5 to 7 per cent across the board in the past eight months, but are now beginning to level off.
   • House prices in North Yorkshire are levelling out.
   • Test scores began leveling off a couple of years ago.
   • The numbers of people on Earth will grow at an ever-diminishing rate, level off, then begin shrinking.
   • Still, after soaring for years, the company's annual growth rate has begun to level off at about 30%.
   • Across the city there has been a levelling off in growth because the supply is now beginning to catch up with the demand.
   • Cannabis use was levelling off and even beginning to go down.
   • Soon global population will level off and then likely fall for a protracted period of time.
   • He would eventually reach 215 pounds, but then leveled off at about 190.
   • Rents appear to have levelled off and are now holding steady in all locations.
   • Now that house prices have begun to level off, people who have purchased in the last year may find themselves facing negative equity if they are forced to sell their property.

3British with object Make (something, especially a score in sport) equal or similar.

伍兹削球触网，比分成了平局。

1. 3.1level something up/down Increase or reduce something in order to remove a disparity.
   （通过提高或降低到一定水平来）拉平
   Example sentencesExamples

   • The Court's insistence on equal retirement ages in occupational pension schemes forced Britain to level ages up or down.
   • It also shows the potential for workers doing the same job across different companies to link up their battles, and ensure pay and conditions are levelled up.
   • All too often, what that means is levelling skills down rather than encouraging the most talented players to forge ahead and realise their potential.
   • The European Union has always been sold as an integration in which living standards would be leveled up, not down.
   • The solution to rising poverty rates isn't to level incomes down so that half the median is easier for low skilled workers to reach.
   • Admittedly I have to pay a fair amount of tax but do not pay a stamp so that levels it up a little.
   • By forcing the internet to be accessible to everyone, there is a risk that we are levelling it down, reducing its potential to suit many competing, latent, unrealised needs.

   Synonyms

   make equal, make even, even off, even out, even up, make level, level off, level up, make uniform, make the same, make consistent, regularize, standardize, bring into line, balance, square, match

4with object Aim (a weapon)

他用长管手枪对着我们。

1. 4.1 Direct (a criticism or accusation)
   使（批评，指控，控告）针对
   accusations of corruption had been levelled against him

   对他提出了涉嫌腐败的指控。

   Example sentencesExamples

   • Let us begin by reviewing one of the oldest accusations leveled at economic growth.
   • Criticism was levelled at each of the professions involved.
   • There are a lot of little individual criticisms that can be levelled against the album, but overall, it works and it works well.
   • The steward concerned is extremely upset that this accusation has been levelled against him.
   • That is a criticism that has been levelled at us and it is wrong.
   • In some cases, the people being accused were not even aware that an accusation had been levelled against them!
   • The only criticism that could be levelled against him is a lack of patience.
   • Maybe the criticism should be levelled at the designer of the cover rather than the photographer?
   • If those accusations were levelled at the other councillor it would be understandable.
   • Criticism was often levelled at the medical profession for the manner in which the information was given.
   • Despite all the council's flaws, and the criticisms that can be levelled at it, the organization has considerable achievements to its name.
   • No criticism has been levelled at the councillor who withdrew her nomination for mayor and subsequently changed her vote.
   • The outrage was levelled in equal measure against the investigators, for believing their own data, and the journal for publishing it.
   • A lot of criticism was levelled at the legislation when it was introduced in 2000.
   • One criticism that might be levelled at him is that he is too soft.
   • Some of the accusations being levelled at individuals and institutions are of the worst kind - rape, bullying, neglect, incompetence.
   • All sorts of bizarre accusations have been levelled at me.
   • If any criticism is to be levelled at him it is that he played far too much injury time at the end of the game.
   • This has led to all sorts of unfair and unsubstantiated accusations being leveled against me.
   • Care should be taken with the manner in which criticism was levelled at other countries' leaders.

5level withinformal no object Be frank or honest with (someone)

你啥时候才能跟我直来直去的啊？

6Surveying
with object Ascertain differences in the height of (land).