archaeologist
Americannoun
-
archaeologists
plural
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of archaeologist
Explanation
An archaeologist is a scientist who studies human history by digging up human remains and artifacts. Lucy, the oldest human known to man — nearly 3.2 million years old — was dug up in Ethiopia by archaeologist. We know about the history of the human species thanks to archaeologists who spend countless hours sifting through dirt and digging through ruins to find evidence of human life from across time. The word archaeologist can also be spelled archeologist. It comes from the Greek root archaeo-, for "ancient, primitive."
Vocabulary lists containing archaeologist
Play by the Rules: Arch
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Occupations
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The Origins of Civilization, Lessons 1–2
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
But when James Mellaart, a British archaeologist, stumbled on Çatalhöyük in 1952, it was only a “whopping great mound,” 60-feet high and covered in grass.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 14, 2026
"We are preparing an interim report, and it will be submitted to the court by the end of September," Prof Raj Somadeva, the chief archaeologist of the mass grave told the BBC.
From BBC ● Sep. 20, 2026
Sudan is hardly the first war-ravaged Middle Eastern nation to have its heritage stolen and sold, said Amr Al-Azm, a Syrian archaeologist and co-director of the Antiquities Trafficking and Heritage Anthropology Research Project.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 8, 2026
In Batroun, a northern coastal city home to the ruins of a small Roman amphitheatre, an archaeologist was surrounded by tools and papers, documenting the latest finds as waves lapped rocks nearby.
From Barron's ● Aug. 29, 2026
As a matter of fact, I’m even planning to be an archaeologist when I grow up.
From "The Egypt Game" by Zilpha Keatley Snyder
For decades, archaeologists have disagreed about what happened to the people living near the eruption.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 18, 2026
Another important discovery followed in 2022, when archaeologists identified nearby burials of elite craftspeople accompanied by gold, silver, and bronze tools.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 18, 2026
Their ribs had evidence of a partly healed wound, which archaeologists believe was probably caused by a stone-tipped spear.
From BBC ● Oct. 15, 2026
About a century ago, archaeologists excavating pottery fragments around Tampa Bay encountered something puzzling.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 6, 2026
Given the near impossibility of surpassing the glaciers without the corridor, some archaeologists suggested that the first Americans must have arrived twenty thousand years ago, when the ice pack was smaller.
From "1491" by Charles C. Mann
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Get a wordDefinitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
