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What is the difference between level and flat?

level | flat |

Flat is a synonym of level.



As adjectives the difference between level and flat

is that level is the same height at all places; parallel to a flat ground while flat is having no variations in height.

As nouns the difference between level and flat

is that level is a tool for finding whether a surface is level, or for creating a horizontal or vertical line of reference while flat is an area of level ground.

As verbs the difference between level and flat

is that level is to adjust so as to make as flat or perpendicular to the ground as possible while flat is to make a flat call; to call without raising.

As an adverb flat is

so as to be flat.

level

English

(wikipedia level)

Adjective

(er)
  • The same height at all places; parallel to a flat ground.
  • * Milton
  • the smooth and level pavement
  • At the same height as some reference; constructed as level with .
  • * {{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham), title=(The China Governess)
  • , chapter=14 citation , passage=Nanny Broome was looking up at the outer wall. Just under the ceiling there were three lunette windows, heavily barred and blacked out in the normal way by centuries of grime. Their bases were on a level with the pavement outside, a narrow way which was several feet lower than the road behind the house.}}
  • Unvaried in frequency.
  • Calm.
  • In the same position or rank.
  • * Shakespeare
  • Young boys and girls / Are level now with men.
  • * {{quote-news, year=2011, date=October 22, author=Sam Sheringham
  • , title=Aston Villa 1 - 2 West Brom, work=BBC Sport citation , passage=After a poor start to the season, Roy Hodgson's men are now unbeaten in four matches and 10th in the Premier League table, level with Aston Villa on 11 points.}}
  • Straightforward; direct; clear.
  • * M. Arnold
  • a very plain and level account
  • Well balanced; even; just; steady; impartial.
  • a level''' head; a '''level understanding
  • * Shakespeare
  • a level consideration
  • (phonetics) Of even tone; without rising or falling inflection.
  • Antonyms

    * unbalanced * uneven * tilted

    Derived terms

    * level playing field * dead level

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A tool for finding whether a surface is , or for creating a horizontal or vertical line of reference.
  • A distance relative to a given reference elevation.
  • Degree or amount.
  • * , chapter=17
  • , title= The Mirror and the Lamp , passage=This time was most dreadful for Lilian. Thrown on her own resources and almost penniless, she maintained herself and paid the rent of a wretched room near the hospital by working as a charwoman, sempstress, anything. In a moment she had dropped to the level of a casual labourer.}}
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-05-17, author=George Monbiot, authorlink=George Monbiot
  • , title=Money just makes the rich suffer, volume=188, issue=23, page=19, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) citation , passage=In order to grant the rich these pleasures, the social contract is reconfigured. […]  The public realm is privatised, the regulations restraining the ultra–wealthy and the companies they control are abandoned, and Edwardian levels of inequality are almost fetishised.}}
  • (computer science) Distance from the root node of a tree structure.
  • (gaming) One of several discrete segments of a game generally increasing in difficulty. Often numbered. Often, each level occupies different physical space (levels don't require any direct physical relationship to each other, e.g. vertically stacked, horizontally chained, etc).
  • (gaming) A numeric value that quantifies a character's experience and power.
  • A floor of a multi-storey building.
  • (British) an area of almost perfectly flat land.
  • Derived terms

    * bonus level * dead level * on the level * spirit level * split level * to the next level

    See also

    *

    Verb

  • To adjust so as to make as flat or perpendicular to the ground as possible.
  • :
  • To destroy by reducing to ground level; to raze.
  • :
  • *(John Dryden) (1631-1700)
  • *:He levels mountains and he raises plains.
  • (lb) To progress to the next level.
  • :
  • To aim or direct (a weapon, a stare, an accusation, etc).
  • :
  • *(John Stow) (c.1525–1605)
  • *:Bertram de Gordon, standing on the castle wall, levelled a quarrel out of a crossbow.
  • *
  • *:But then I had the [massive] flintlock by me for protection. ¶The linen-press and a chest on the top of it formed, however, a very good gun-carriage; and, thus mounted, aim could be taken out of the window […], and a 'bead' could be drawn upon Molly, the dairymaid, kissing the fogger behind the hedge, little dreaming that the deadly tube was levelled at them.
  • To make the score of a game equal.
  • *{{quote-news, year=2012, date=April 9, author=Mandeep Sanghera, work=BBC Sport
  • , title= Tottenham 1-2 Norwich , passage=Holt was furious referee Michael Oliver refused to then award him a penalty after Ledley King appeared to pull his shirt and his anger was compounded when Spurs immediately levelled .}}
  • To levy.
  • *2007 , Mary Jacoby, EU investigators endorse charges against Intel , Wall Street Journal Europe, 17 January, p.32, col.5:
  • *:Ultimately, Ms. Kroes [European Union Antitrust Commissioner] could level a fine and order Intel to change its business practices.
  • (lb) To bring to a common level or plane, in respect of rank, condition, character, privilege, etc.
  • :
  • To adjust or adapt to a certain level.
  • :
  • *(Edmund Spenser) (c.1552–1599)
  • *:For all his mind on honour fixed is, / To which he levels all his purposes.
  • Derived terms

    * level out * level up * level with someone

    flat

    English

    Etymology 1

    From (etyl) flat, from (etyl) Flat] in (Online Etymology Dictionary) flatr (Norwegian and Swedish flat, Danish flad), from (etyl) [http://ordnet.dk/ods/opslag?opslag=flad&submit=S%F8g Sanskrit, OHG and Greek cognates named.

    Alternative forms

    * , (l) (obsolete)

    Adjective

    (flatter)
  • Having no variations in height.
  • * {{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham), title=(The China Governess)
  • , chapter=17 citation , passage=The face which emerged was not reassuring. It was blunt and grey, the nose springing thick and flat from high on the frontal bone of the forehead, whilst his eyes were narrow slits of dark in a tight bandage of tissue. […].}}
  • (of a tire or other inflated object) Deflated, especially because of a puncture.
  • (music, note) Lowered by one semitone.
  • (music) Of a note or voice, lower in pitch than it should be.
  • (music, voice) Without variations in pitch.
  • Of a carbonated drink, with all or most of its carbon dioxide having come out of solution so that the drink no longer fizzes or contains any bubbles.
  • Uninteresting.
  • * Coleridge
  • A large part of the work is, to me, very flat .
  • * Shakespeare
  • How weary, stale, flat , and unprofitable / Seem to me all the uses of this world.
  • (wine) Lacking acidity without being sweet.
  • Absolute.
  • (slang) Describing certain features, usually the breasts and/or buttocks, that are extremely small or not visible at all.
  • (of a battery) Unable to emit power; dead.
  • (juggling, of a throw) Without spin; spinless.
  • Lacking liveliness of commercial exchange and dealings; depressed; dull.
  • The market is flat .
  • (phonetics, dated, of a consonant) sonant; vocal, as distinguished from a sharp (non-sonant) consonant
  • (obsolete) Clear; unmistakable; peremptory; absolute; positive; downright.
  • * Shakespeare
  • flat burglary as ever was committed
  • * Marston
  • A great tobacco taker too, — that's flat .
    Synonyms
    * (having no variations in altitude) even, planar, plane, smooth, uniform * (deflated) deflated, punctured * (without variations in pitch) monotone * (uninteresting) boring, dull, uninteresting * flabby
    Antonyms
    * (having no variations in altitude) bumpy, cratered, hilly (of terrain), rough (of a surface), wrinkled (of a surface) * sharp * sharp
    Derived terms
    * flat as a pancake * flatcar * flat-footed * flatly * flatness * flat out * flat rate * flatten * that's flat

    Adverb

    (en adverb)
  • So as to be flat.
  • Spread the tablecloth flat over the table.
  • Bluntly.
  • I asked him if he wanted to marry me and he turned me down flat .
  • Not exceeding.
  • He can run a mile in four minutes flat .
  • Completely.
  • I am flat broke this month.
  • Directly; flatly.
  • * Herbert
  • Sin is flat opposite to the Almighty.
  • (finance, slang) Without allowance for accrued interest.
  • Synonyms
    * (so as to be flat) * (bluntly) bluntly, curtly * (not exceeding) tops * (completely) absolutely, completely, utterly

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • An area of level ground.
  • * Francis Bacon
  • Envy is as the sunbeams that beat hotter upon a bank, or steep rising ground, than upon a flat .
  • * , chapter=3
  • , title= Mr. Pratt's Patients , passage=My hopes wa'n't disappointed. I never saw clams thicker than they was along them inshore flats . I filled my dreener in no time, and then it come to me that 'twouldn't be a bad idee to get a lot more, take 'em with me to Wellmouth, and peddle 'em out. Clams was fairly scarce over that side of the bay and ought to fetch a fair price.}}
  • (music) A note played a semitone lower than a natural, denoted by the symbol sign placed after the letter representing the note (e.g.'', B?) or in front of the note symbol (''e.g. ??).
  • (informal, automotive) A flat tyre/tire.
  • * 2012 , July 15. Richard Williams in Guardian Unlimited, Tour de France 2012: Carpet tacks cannot force Bradley Wiggins off track
  • The next one surrendered his bike, only for that, too, to give him a second flat as he started the descent.
  • (in the plural) A type of ladies' shoes with very low heels.
  • (painting) A thin, broad brush used in oil and watercolor/watercolour painting.
  • The part of something:
  • # (swordfighting) The side of a blade, as opposed to the sharp edge.
  • # The palm of the hand, with the adjacent part of the fingers.
  • A wide, shallow container.
  • (geometry) A subset of n-dimensional space that is congruent to a Euclidean space of lower dimension.
  • A flat-bottomed boat, without keel, and of small draught.
  • A straw hat, broad-brimmed and low-crowned.
  • (US) A railroad car without a roof, and whose body is a platform without sides; a platform car or flatcar.
  • A platform on a wheel, upon which emblematic designs etc. are carried in processions.
  • (mining) A horizontal vein or ore deposit auxiliary to a main vein; also, any horizontal portion of a vein not elsewhere horizontal.
  • (Raymond)
  • (obsolete) A dull fellow; a simpleton.
  • * Holmes
  • Or if you cannnot make a speech, / Because you are a flat .
  • (technical theatre) A rectangular wooden structure covered with masonite, lauan or muslin that can be raised as a platform.
  • Antonyms
    * (note) sharp * (shoes) high heels
    Derived terms
    * mudflat

    Verb

  • (poker slang) To make a flat call; to call without .
  • To become flat or flattened; to sink or fall to an even surface.
  • (intransitive, music, colloquial) To fall from the pitch.
  • (music) To depress in tone, as a musical note; especially, to lower in pitch by half a tone.
  • (dated) To make flat; to flatten; to level.
  • (dated) To render dull, insipid, or spiritless; to depress.
  • * Barrow
  • Passions are allayed, appetites are flatted .

    Etymology 2

    From 1795, alteration of (etyl) .

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (archaic, New England, now chiefly British) An apartment.
  • Synonyms
    * (apartment) apartment
    Derived terms
    * block of flats * flatlet * flatmate * flatter

    References

    Anagrams

    * 1000 English basic words ----