Dictionary

levitation en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• /ˌlɛvɪˈteɪʃən/
• (Southern-England) audio

Etymology

From levitate + -ion, from Latin levitas (“lightness”), patterned in English on gravitate.

Meanings

1. (countable, uncountable) The raising of something, such as a body, without apparent physical cause, allegedly using the power of the mind.
2. (countable, uncountable) The suspension of something via technical means without any mechanical support, such as by magnetism.
   • We then had to endure a four-hour-long change of bogies at Brest - from the Soviet 1520mm-wide gauge to the 1435mm Polish and West European - when our carriage, with passengers inside, was lifted off the track by giant railway jacks, giving us a brief and not entirely unpleasant feeling of levitation. 2026 January 21, Vitali Vitaliev, “By train to a New World”, in RAIL, number 1053, page 68:
   • It was erected by the application of those universal laws and forces of nature which cause iron to float. By the same laws, gravity may be overcome or neutralized, and stone made to float in air. The Pyramid was thus built by levitation, abetted by song and chanting, much in the same manner in which the Druids of England set up their huge stones at a later period. 1972, Lytle Robinson, chapter 4, in Edgar Cayceʼs Story of the Origin and Destiny of Man, USA: Berkley Publishing Corporation, page 90:

Forms

Deriveds

nanolevitation · magnetic levitation · levitational · optical levitation

Relateds

buoyancy

Translations (30)

ca levitació (technical suspension without mechanical support) · eo levitacio (raising of something without apparent physical cause) · fi levitaatio (raising of something without apparent physical cause) · ro levitație (raising of something without apparent physical cause) · bg левита́ция (raising of something without apparent physical cause) · fi leijutus (technical suspension without mechanical support) · sk levitácia (raising of something without apparent physical cause) · pl lewitacja (technical suspension without mechanical support) · hu levitáció (raising of something without apparent physical cause) · cs vznášení se (technical suspension without mechanical support) · de Schweben (technical suspension without mechanical support) · fi leijutus (raising of something without apparent physical cause) · hu felemelkedés (raising of something without apparent physical cause) · cs levitace (raising of something without apparent physical cause) · ru левита́ция (raising of something without apparent physical cause) · pt levitação (raising of something without apparent physical cause) · hi प्रोत्थापन (raising of something without apparent physical cause) · nl levitatie (raising of something without apparent physical cause) · sk vznášanie (technical suspension without mechanical support) · fi levitaatio (technical suspension without mechanical support) · hu lebegés (raising of something without apparent physical cause) · de Levitation (raising of something without apparent physical cause) · sv levitation (raising of something without apparent physical cause) · la levatio (raising of something without apparent physical cause) · pl lewitacja (raising of something without apparent physical cause) · ca levitació (raising of something without apparent physical cause) · ru левита́ция (technical suspension without mechanical support) · da levitation (raising of something without apparent physical cause) · pt levitação (technical suspension without mechanical support) · cs vznášení (technical suspension without mechanical support)