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:
"The discoveries from the excavations, especially coins bearing Homer's likeness, show us that the inhabitants of ancient Smyrna considered the poet to be one of their own," archaeologist Mehmet Akif Erdem said.
From Barron's ● Aug. 17, 2026
“Of course, we’re familiar with the history and the events,” said Matthew DeFelice, another forensic underwater archaeologist with the POW agency.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 30, 2026
John Bolton, an archaeologist, was visiting the 11th Century Pembroke Castle in 2010 when he heard there was a cave beneath it.
From BBC ● Jul. 16, 2026
The remains were uncovered inside Heaning Wood Bone Cave near Great Urswick in Cumbria during excavations led by local archaeologist Martin Stables.
From Science Daily ● May 20, 2026
My host that night was an American archaeologist.
From "1491" by Charles C. Mann
The workplace at the center of “Dig” is an excavation site in Greece, where Poehler’s Elise is among a team of archaeologists that unearths a rare artifact.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 1, 2026
Sarkis Khoury, head of antiquities at Lebanon's culture ministry, told AFP the war had forced archaeologists to switch tack.
From Barron's ● Aug. 29, 2026
Even with those limitations, the findings could change how archaeologists interpret other crowded burial spaces.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 19, 2026
The archaeologists built sterile, temporary structures with temperature and humidity controls, and lowered experts clad in head-to-toe medical gowns into the pits atop bedlike platforms so as to minimize contact with the artifacts.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 8, 2026
At the same time, that very sweep is why the Maya collapse has fascinated archaeologists since the 1840s, when the outside world first learned of the abandoned cities in Yucatan.
From "1491" by Charles C. Mann
Definitions 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.
