In this paper the author examines a possible contribution of the explicit introduction of 'levels' in concept hierarchies in the description of formations of complex terms. First, some semantic or conceptual analyses of complex words are reviewed, showing that the semantic or conceptual categories used in these studies implicitly presuppose certain levels in semantic or concept hierarchies but they do not need to introduce 'levels'. The importance of levels in concept hierarchies in the description of term formations are then considered, proposing a different description viewpoint of term formation which is valid for terms but not necessarily ordinary words. Finally how term formation patterns are described is roughly sketched.