ground level

noun

plural ground levels

1

a

: the level of the ground taken as a reference point

From ground level, the arrayed fields of feed corn and soybeans look … like sprint tracks or Olympic pools, replete with the angles and alleys of serious tennis.

—David Foster Wallace

These survey flights were conducted at 300 feet above ground level. During the return flight to Schefferville, the aircraft descended and flew over terrain at an altitude varying between 100 and 40 feet above ground level.

—Targeted New Service

compare sea level

b

: the story (see story entry 3 sense 1a) of a building with its floor aligned to ground level : ground floor sense 1

It was a two-story house with white siding on the ground level …

—Neil Sheehan

2

: the state of a physical system (as of an atomic nucleus or an atom) having the least energy of all the possible states : ground state

Examples of ground level in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Most of the tale, however, unfolds at ground level, and in astoundingly intimate detail. —Justin Chang, The New Yorker, 25 Oct. 2024

Razack successfully lobbied the local government to amend a law that required cinemas to be located at ground level, securing permission to place a cinema multiplex on parts of the third and fourth floors. —Anu Raghunathan, Forbes, 9 Oct. 2024

Storm surge was expected to be the biggest threat for Florida, with 6 to 10 feet of inundation above ground level predicted in part of the zone near the Big Bend, according to John Cangialosi, a hurricane specialist with the National Hurricane Center. —CBS News, 5 Aug. 2024

Auld-Thomas: The main difference between the way that ecologists use lidar and the way that archaeologists use it is that ecologists are interested in everything that's happening above ground level. —Anna Lagos, WIRED, 2 Nov. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1787, in the meaning defined at sense 1