# leveller

Pronunciation: say "LEV-uhl-er" UK /ˈlɛv.l̩.ə/, US /ˈlɛv.l̩.ɚ/

## Noun

1. Something that makes differences between people, such as class or wealth, count for nothing, and tends to cancel out the advantages some have over others.
   - Simple: Something that makes people equal, so that being rich or poor stops mattering.
   - _The flood proved a leveller: rich and poor alike lost their homes and queued for the same blankets._
   - _Many saw national service as a social leveller that threw young men from every background together._
2. In sport, a goal or other score that pulls a side back on equal terms with the opposition.
   - Simple: In sport, a goal or point that makes the score equal again.
   - _Rovers threw men forward in search of a late leveller._
   - _Her header was a deserved leveller after twenty minutes of pressure._
3. A person, tool or device that makes something level.
   - Simple: Someone or something that makes things flat or even.
   - _Each foot of the fridge has a small screw leveller that you can adjust by hand._
   - _The contractor ran a leveller over the ground before the new lawn was sown._
4. Someone who belonged to the Levellers, a radical movement of the English Civil War that pressed for a wider vote, equal treatment under the law and religious toleration.
   - Simple: A member of an English Civil War group that wanted more voters, equal rights in law and freedom of worship.
   - _Jailed for his pamphlets, the Leveller went on arguing from his cell that the law must treat every free man alike._
   - _Leveller demands for a wider franchise alarmed many in Parliament during the Civil War._
5. A person who holds the political view that the inequality between rich and poor should be done away with.
   - Simple: Someone who thinks the gap between rich and poor people should be taken away.
   - _Her opponents painted her as a leveller who would tax away every fortune in the country._
   - _The squire distrusted the new curate, whom he suspected of being a leveller._

## Adjective

6. Comparative of level. — comparative form of level: more level
   - Simple: Comparative of level. Use it to say that one thing is more flat or even than another.
   - _Once the builders had finished, the kitchen floor was much leveller than before._
   - _The ground by the back fence is leveller, so that is where the shed should go._

## Origin

Formed from level with the suffix -er, which makes nouns for someone or something that does an action.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/leveller (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).