Levée

Levée is a French noun (feminine) derived from lever, meaning to raise or lift. It denotes the act or result of rising, lifting, or increasing, and appears in phrases such as la levée du soleil (dawn) or la levée des eaux (rising waters). In broader use, levée can describe an ascent, an elevation, or the mobilization of people.

In civil engineering, a levée refers to an artificial embankment built along rivers or coasts to prevent flooding or control water flow. Such structures are commonly called levees or dikes in English; in French, levées are planned, maintained, and sometimes breached during high water events, requiring ongoing supervision and repair.

In geology and hydrology, a natural levée (levée naturelle) is a raised landform formed by sediment deposition during floods. These natural levees typically run parallel to a river channel and raise the edge of the floodplain, influencing flood behavior and drainage.

In public administration and law, levée denotes the act of levying or collecting a tax, duty, or fee, as in levée d’impôt or levée de fonds. The term also appears in historical contexts, such as levée en masse, the mass mobilization of troops initiated during the French Revolution.

In English, the related term levee is used for similar flood-control structures, and the French sense of levée can extend to broader notions of rising, ascent, or collection depending on context.