Level-headed means calm and sensible when things go wrong. A level-headed response.
It is praise for judgement under pressure rather than for cleverness. A level-headed person is the one everybody looks at when something goes badly.
1adjectivelevel-headedCalm and sensible when things go wrong.
“She was level-headed about it in a way nobody else managed.”
level-headed is a quality.
Level plus headed; the image is of a head that stays level rather than being turned.
From level + headed.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA