levitate
Americanverb (used without object)
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levitates,
present (3rd person singular)
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levitated,
past participle, past
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levitating
present participle
verb (used with object)
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levitates,
present (3rd person singular)
-
levitated,
past participle, past
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levitating
present participle
verb
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to rise or cause to rise and float in the air, without visible agency, attributed, esp formerly, to supernatural causes
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(tr) med to support (a patient) on a cushion of air in the treatment of severe burns
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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levitatesimple
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levitatessimple
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have levitatedperfect
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has levitatedperfect
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am levitatingprogressive
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are levitatingprogressive
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is levitatingprogressive
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have been levitatingperfect progressive
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has been levitatingperfect progressive
Past
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levitatedsimple
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had levitatedperfect
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was levitatingprogressive
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were levitatingprogressive
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had been levitatingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of levitate
Explanation
To levitate is to float in the air, defying gravity. It also means to cause something to do that. With a magnetic force — or a magic wand — you might be able to make your teacher levitate above your classroom. Levitate comes from the Latin levis, meaning “light.” Something that is light can levitate easily. Magicians levitate things like pigs and snowmobiles and women as part of their shows. In architecture, certain structures can be raised or suspended so as to appear to levitate.
Vocabulary lists containing levitate
The Things They Carried
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The Wednesday Wars
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Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Planetary scientists think that electrostatic forces generated from this interaction levitate dust or ice above the ring to form the spokes, though after several decades no theory perfectly predicts the spokes.
From Science Daily ● Dec. 21, 2023
It’s the spell you cast to levitate something.
From Seattle Times ● Nov. 21, 2023
This vapour layer reduces the rate of heat transfer and makes liquid cooling on the hot surface ineffective, causing the liquid to levitate and skid across the surface.
From Science Daily ● Nov. 10, 2023
The Wall Street journal quoted him as predicting that “we could magnetically levitate trains above superconducting rails, change the way electricity is stored and transferred, and revolutionize medical imaging.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 10, 2023
She can also levitate and control people’s minds.
From "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks" by Rebecca Skloot
That said, when Michael Keaton shows up, the movie virtually levitates.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 28, 2026
The South Korean researchers provided a video of what they say is LK-99 exhibiting the Meissner effect, but superconductors aren’t the only things that float above magnets—graphite, for example, also levitates.
From Scientific American ● Jul. 27, 2023
As he is dying, he levitates, at last free from the monstrous burden of flesh.
From Salon ● Jan. 30, 2023
The most striking is “Valor,” in which an orange rectangle levitates, ever so slightly off-center.
From Washington Post ● Apr. 8, 2022
Tano almost loses his balance, and he levitates in the air to steady himself.
From "Kwame Crashes the Underworld" by Craig Kofi Farmer
When the levitated beads interact, they do so by scattering sound waves between one another.
From Science Daily ● Mar. 22, 2026
During tests, eggs released one after another with minimal effort; with a bit of oil, they practically levitated.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 24, 2025
Interest in AI has levitated shares of Nvidia, Broadcom, and their ilk, but also stoked fresh fears of an AI bubble.
From Barron's ● Oct. 23, 2025
I was levitated 40 feet in the air.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 9, 2025
She was mostly obscured by the drapes, and one stockinged leg was supported by the knee of the other, which gave it its curious, slanting and levitated appearance.
From "Atonement" by Ian McEwan
Of course, they don’t much resemble the levitating Studebakers and auto-gyrating Chevys foretold in pulp science fiction.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 17, 2025
The effect of it all is so electric, it’s liable to leave you levitating.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 25, 2024
But the grasping device was not physically connected to anything - it appeared to be levitating inside the person's body.
From BBC ● Apr. 4, 2024
It measured a weak pull, just 30aN, on a tiny particle 0.43mg in size by levitating it in freezing temperatures a hundredth of a degree above absolute zero -- about minus-273 degrees Celsius.
From Science Daily ● Feb. 25, 2024
So he focused on the dozen or so hand mirrors levitating just beyond A.M. and P.M.
From "The Last Last-Day-of-Summer" by Lamar Giles
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
