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TOEIC Link Part 5: levee versus levy

Levee and levy sound alike but sit in different worlds: a levee is a bank built to hold back water, while a levy is a tax or charge imposed by an authority. Part 5 tests whether the blank names a flood barrier or a fee, and whether the word works as a noun or a verb.

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TOEIC Link Part 5: levee versus levy

Levee and levy are near-homophones, so Part 5 uses them to test whether you know which word belongs in a business or civic sentence. Levee is almost always a noun meaning a raised bank or embankment built to stop a river from flooding. Levy is both a noun meaning a tax, fee, or charge imposed by law or authority and a verb meaning to impose or collect such a charge. The item is decided by asking whether the blank names a flood barrier or a tax that someone imposes. For the full set of look-alike traps, start with the commonly confused word pairs master index.

The core rule: flood bank versus imposed charge

  • levee (noun) = a raised embankment that holds back water. It names a physical structure along a river or coast. The town reinforced the levee before the rainy season. It answers what keeps the water out? Anchor it with levee → embankment; a river levee, a broken levee — earthworks that protect land from flooding.
  • levy (noun or verb) = a tax or charge, or the act of imposing one. As a noun it names the fee; as a verb it names the imposing. The government introduced a new import levy. / Authorities may levy a fine on late filers. It answers what charge is imposed, or who imposes it? Anchor it with levy → tax/charge; a tax levy, to levy a duty — money demanded by an authority.

A quick anchor: levee = flood bank (the river levee held); levy = tax/charge (an import levy). The word about holding back water is levee; the word about imposing a fee is levy.

Why Part 5 likes this pair

The two words are pronounced almost identically, so the wrong option sounds right when you read the sentence in your head. Only the meaning and the grammar decide the answer. If the sentence is about water, flooding, or embankments, you need levee. If it is about taxes, tariffs, fines, or charges — the far more common TOEIC context — you need levy, and you should check whether the slot wants a noun or a verb.

The new environmental __ applies to every imported vehicle.

The sentence is about a charge on imports, so it needs the noun levy.

Regulators plan to __ an additional fee on high-emission plants.

The sentence needs a verb meaning impose, so it needs levy.

Spotting the clue

Check whether the sentence is about water or about money:

  • Does the sentence describe an embankment, river, flood, or coastal defense — often near river, flood, breach, or reinforce? → choose levee (the levee failed, a reinforced levee).
  • Does the sentence describe a tax, tariff, fine, or charge — often near tax, import, impose, fee, or duty? → choose levy (an import levy, to levy a fine).

A quick test: can you replace the word with "embankment" and keep the meaning? Then it is levee. Can you replace it with "tax" or "impose"? Then it is levy. In TOEIC business scenarios, levy dominates because it fits finance, trade, and compliance sentences — a carbon levy, a customs levy, to levy duties — while levee appears only in the occasional infrastructure or insurance passage. For more pairs where meaning turns on business context, see the business and finance confusable pairs study guide.

Common Part 5 patterns

TOEIC Part 5 reuses a few frames for this pair. Recognizing them saves seconds on test day:

  • "an import / carbon / customs __" → levy (a charge). The budget added a carbon levy.
  • "to __ a tax / fee / fine / duty" → levy (verb, impose). The board voted to levy a surcharge.
  • "reinforce / breach / build a __" → levee (embankment). Engineers rushed to reinforce the levee.
  • "the __ held / failed during the flood" → levee (flood bank). The levee held through the storm.

Match the frame first, then confirm with the meaning: a flood barrier → levee; an imposed charge → levy.

Practice check

Decide which word fits each blank:

  1. Parliament agreed to __ a levy on single-use plastics.
  2. The __ along the delta was rebuilt after the last flood.
  3. A new digital services __ will affect large platforms.
  4. Volunteers piled sandbags to strengthen the failing __.

Answers: 1. levy (verb — impose a charge); 2. levee (embankment); 3. levy (noun — a charge); 4. levee (flood bank).

The takeaway: levee is the bank that holds back water, and levy is the tax or charge an authority imposes — and on TOEIC, levy is by far the one you will meet. Decide by asking whether the sentence is about flooding or about money, and if it is about money, check whether the slot wants the noun or the verb. For more distinctions like this one, keep working through the commonly confused word pairs master index.