levitation
Americannoun
-
the act or phenomenon of levitating.
-
the raising or rising of a body in air by supernatural means.
Other Word Forms
- levitational adjective
- levitative adjective
- self-levitation noun
Etymology
Origin of levitation
Explanation
When a magician makes a hat float mysteriously in the air, that's levitation. You may see levitation that appears entirely real at a magic show, with silver balls or scarves appearing to linger in midair. In the illusion of levitation, a magician raises an object or person into the air, and a psychic or medium's levitation might consist of a table rising slowly into the air. There are also scientifically valid examples of levitation, from the simple occurrence of a feather being blown upward by a breeze to magnetic levitation, when a powerful magnet exerts a force that's strong enough to raise a metal object into the air.
Vocabulary lists containing levitation
UFO-cabulary
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Mr. Lemoncello's Library Olympics
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Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library
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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.
A superconductor is characterized by zero resistivity and perfect diamagnetic behavior, which leads to dissipationless transport and magnetic levitation.
From Science Daily • Oct. 2, 2023
Some of the most exciting and promising clean tech — like magnetic levitation trains and other low-cost, high-speed transportation — could finally be viable for mass development with superconductor use.
From Salon • Aug. 10, 2023
The levitation video is also not definitive, because non-superconducting materials including graphite can also partially float in the same way.
From New York Times • Aug. 3, 2023
“What in the wingardium leviosa is that dress,” one person wrote, referencing the levitation spell Watson’s Hermione uses to make a feather fly in the first “Harry Potter” film.
From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 22, 2023
The outsiders, of course, thought that Remedios the Beauty had finally succumbed to her irrevocable fate of a queen bee and that her family was trying to save her honor with that tale of levitation.
From "One Hundred Years of Solitude" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
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.
