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:
"We can levitate objects against gravity by immersing them in a sound field called a standing wave."
From Science Daily ● Mar. 22, 2026
I marveled at how the hidden-in-the-floor projections allow the ghost to levitate, but also increasingly felt a sense of mourning.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 17, 2025
“Good days I levitate off the ground/Some days I can’t get out of bed,” they sing, later adding “baby, I barely get through each day.”
From New York Times ● Jan. 26, 2024
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
“He was gonna help me levitate, and he took my hands, and then—” My voice cracks.
From "The Manifestor Prophecy" by Angie Thomas
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
Off superstar producer Metro Boomin’s “Heroes and Villains” album, “Superhero” sounds like scenes in superhero movies where either the main character or villain gains their powers and levitates in the air for a few seconds.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 25, 2023
As he is dying, he levitates, at last free from the monstrous burden of flesh.
From Salon ● Jan. 30, 2023
Tano almost loses his balance, and he levitates in the air to steady himself.
From "Kwame Crashes the Underworld" by Craig Kofi Farmer
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
Instead, he hit the game-winning home run, nearly levitated around first base, and became an October hero yet again.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 5, 2025
Above the racetrack, a handful of ytterbium ions are trapped and levitated by a train of electrical, radiofrequency, and laser pulses.
From Science Magazine ● May 30, 2024
They levitated off the ground and started dragging him away from us.
From "The Lightning Thief" by Rick Riordan
Tesla’s demonstration of a levitating Roadster sports car was “an engineering flex with no commercial value beyond embarrassing traditional car makers.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 16, 2026
After nearly a decade of promises, Elon Musk finally showed off a car capable of levitating.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 16, 2026
Inside one darkened room in the show, a life-size, glass “portrait” of the astronaut Lawrence appears to be levitating as if free from gravitational forces.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 16, 2025
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
Instead of levitating, the car filled with the dreadful noise Humans call music.
From "Klawde: Evil Alien Warlord Cat" by Johnny Marciano and Emily Chenoweth
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
