When falling, one may be affected by the levitation effect, or in some other way have their downward momentum slowed or stopped. Despite this, the fall distance of a player is not reset, thus even when one is gliding right above the ground, if they had been falling a significant distance beforehand, they will still take fall damage as if they had not been levitated.

Can be reproduced crudely by teleporting oneself 40 blocks into the air in survival mode, and then affecting oneself with levitation just before hitting the ground. The player will still die from fall damage despite only falling a small distance after the levitation wears off.