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

When the surface temperature, or the air temperature at ground level, is at or below freezing (32 degrees), icy precipitation such as snow, freezing rain, freezing drizzle, sleet and graupel are all possible. —Mary Wasson, Austin American Statesman, 23 Jan. 2026

Places with fast average winds rarely experience significant gusts, and besides, gusts are recorded at ground level and in the sky—namely during tornadoes. —Josh Lew, Treehugger, 20 Jan. 2026

Cut back flowering stems and foliage to 1 to 2 inches above ground level. —Barbara Gillette, The Spruce, 15 Jan. 2026

Roger Gass, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in the San Francisco Bay Area, explains that a warm high-pressure layer above the region is trapping pollution at ground level. —Noe Padilla, USA Today, 15 Jan. 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1787, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for ground level

• daredevil
• sublevel
• bevel
• devil
• mediaeval
• multilevel