Thesaurus results for LEVEES

levees

noun

plural of levee

as in dams

a bank of earth constructed to control water the raging floodwaters were too much for the levee to handle

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as in wharves

a structure used by boats and ships for taking on or landing cargo and passengers we tied the boat up at the levee and started unloading the fish we had caught

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Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Recent Examples of levees By the Army Corps’ estimate, by the early 2000s, 86% of Fort Worth’s levees were no longer tall enough to protect against that kind of biblical flooding. — Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 27 Sep. 2026 Old levees and dams, for example, can leave a community vulnerable to catastrophic flooding, as the Seattle area saw in December 2025 when flooding from heavy rainfall broke levees in multiple communities. — Bethany Tietjen, The Conversation, 21 Sep. 2026 Before there were levees, there were 4 million acres of wetland here, an inland marsh that took the Sierra’s runoff every spring. — Sean MacAday, Sacbee.com, 20 Sep. 2026 Before floodwater began to rise, Abigail Erikson hadn’t planned to spend hours filling sandbags to save the community of Rocky Ripple as levees threatened failure. — Jen Guadarrama, IndyStar, 20 Aug. 2026 Another problem human measures like dams and levees seem to have created, the team argues, is a perception of safety. — Christopher McFadden, Interesting Engineering, 9 Aug. 2026 The failure of the New Orleans levees caused the city to flood, hitting poorer Black neighborhoods particularly hard. — Tracy Grant, Encyclopedia Britannica, 7 Aug. 2026

Recent Examples of Synonyms for levees

Noun

Reuters reported in 2025 that China and India, the world's most populous countries, have built 68 major dams in the Himalayas and another 101 are in the pipeline.

— Mamita Bhandari, NPR, 23 Sep. 2026
Much of the Sacramento Valley depends on a network of levees, dams and bypasses to handle both large volumes of rainwater and extra releases from the many reservoirs in the mountains and foothills.

— Sean Macaday, Sacbee.com, 21 Sep. 2026

Definition of dams

Noun

But in 1820, Shippingport had about 600 residents, three wharves for steamboats, taverns and a flour mill.

— Leo Bertucci, Louisville Courier Journal, 16 Aug. 2026
The redevelopment would change that by extending and upgrading existing wharves and dredging areas around the docks.

— David Nikel, Forbes.com, 9 Aug. 2026

Definition of wharves

Noun

How levees work Levees are earthen embankments positioned parallel to a river that effectively raise the height of the banks of the river to prevent overflow when the river swells.

— Kaleigh Yost, The Conversation, 10 Sep. 2026
Ewa Mroczkowska’s production design also turns dewy embankments, decadent interiors, and sunrises over cemeteries into visions of storybook-like decay.

— Alison Foreman, IndieWire, 5 Sep. 2026

Definition of embankments

Noun

Out back, there’s a pool house and a sauna, a gym, a saltwater pool, and 234 feet of waterfront with docks, a beach, and a boathouse.

— Matthew Sedacca, Curbed, 30 Sep. 2026
Electric tugs docked alongside an LNG carrier being loaded at the LNG Canada docks in Kitimat, British Columbia, Canada, on Monday, July 14, 2025.

— Sam Meredith, CNBC, 29 Sep. 2026

Definition of docks

Noun

Benioff left a tiny gap between one of the piers and the pipe.

— Danny Robb, JSTOR Daily, 25 Sep. 2026
Under Spanish rule, able-bodied Malay men, from teenagers to adults, were required to perform 40 days of unpaid annual labor on roads, bridges, churches, forts, piers, plantations, haciendas and mines.

— Naman Ramachandran, Variety, 5 Sep. 2026

Definition of piers

Noun

Wine is embedded in the city’s architecture, history and daily life, from grand 18th-century façades to the bustling quays of the Garonne.

— Joanne Shurvell, Forbes.com, 29 Jan. 2026
According to Vantor, the image shows the construction of a dry dock and new quays and piers at one of China’s most strategically important bases.

— Chris Young, Interesting Engineering, 8 Dec. 2025

Definition of quays

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“Levees.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/levees. Accessed 2 Oct. 2026.

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Synonyms of levees

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