tingkat

Tingkat is a noun in Indonesian and Malay that denotes level, tier, layer, or stage. It can refer to a position within a hierarchy, the degree or intensity of something, or a horizontal layer such as a floor in a building when used in formal or descriptive contexts. The term is widely used across domains to express gradation or sequence.

Common usages include tingkat pendidikan (education level), tingkat kemiskinan (poverty level), tingkat kesulitan (level of difficulty), and tingkat keparahan (severity level). It can be modified by adjectives to form phrases such as tingkat tinggi (high level) or tingkat rendah (low level). The concept often appears in discussions of measurements, scales, and progress.

In architecture and daily speech, tingkat can refer to floors or levels of a building, though lantai is more common in everyday language. A rumah bertingkat is a multi-story house, and one might say tingkat dua to indicate the second floor in more formal or descriptive speech.

In culinary and cultural contexts, kue bertingkat or kue bertingkat-tingkat refers to a tiered or layered cake, emphasizing successive levels or layers in presentation.

Etymology traces tingkat to Malay and Indonesian usage, where it also furnishes related verbs such as meningkat (to rise) and meningkatkan (to increase or improve). These forms reflect the core sense of gradation and progression that runs through the term.