excavate
Americanverb (used with object)
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excavates,
present (3rd person singular)
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excavated,
past participle, past
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excavating
present participle
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to make hollow by removing the inner part; make a hole or cavity in; form into a hollow, as by digging.
The ground was excavated for a foundation.
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to make (a hole, tunnel, etc.) by removing material.
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to dig or scoop out (earth, sand, etc.).
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to expose or lay bare by or as if by digging; unearth.
to excavate an ancient city.
verb
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to remove (soil, earth, etc) by digging; dig out
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to make (a hole, cavity, or tunnel) in (solid matter) by hollowing or removing the centre or inner part
to excavate a tooth
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to unearth (buried objects) methodically in an attempt to discover information about the past
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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excavatesimple
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excavatessimple
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have excavatedperfect
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has excavatedperfect
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am excavatingprogressive
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are excavatingprogressive
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is excavatingprogressive
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have been excavatingperfect progressive
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has been excavatingperfect progressive
Past
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excavatedsimple
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had excavatedperfect
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was excavatingprogressive
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were excavatingprogressive
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had been excavatingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of excavate
1590–1600; < Latin excavātus (past participle of excavāre to hollow out), equivalent to ex- ex- 1 + cav ( um ) hollow, cave + -ātus -ate 1
Explanation
To excavate is to remove or find by digging. If you have rocky soil in your garden, you may have to excavate it to remove the rocks and replace them with additional soil. Construction crews also excavate when they remove material from the ground. Workers slowly excavate subways tunnels using explosives to break up the rock and earth. Then the workers clear away the materials, hollowing out a tunnel as they go. It often takes a lot of time and effort to excavate. But most people would agree a new subway line is dynamite!
Vocabulary lists containing excavate
Power Prefix: ex-
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Holes
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100 SAT Words Beginning with "E"
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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:
Katy Waldman went down the rabbit hole to excavate this weird chapter of internet history.
From Slate ● Oct. 16, 2026
But "there were no opportunities to excavate" the suspected sites, he told AFP.
From Barron's ● Oct. 14, 2026
His best work tunneled into life’s darkest spaces to excavate ideas about our fears and obsessions, often reflected through dazzling practical effects that matched the naturalism of his greatest feature: a singularly expressive, malleable face.
From Salon ● Jul. 17, 2026
They used handheld shovels to excavate blocks of salt, which were processed locally before being shipped around the country.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 13, 2026
Then, a few years ago, the white man from Ibadan came to excavate.
From "Half of a Yellow Sun" by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
As Chelsey excavates the details of Rika’s biography, she explores the blank spaces and lingering questions surrounding her own obscured origins.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 22, 2026
Here, Travolta excavates truth from fiction, and fiction from truth; in his eyes, reality is manufactured with a sprinkle of both.
From Salon ● Jun. 2, 2026
His team excavates the rubble with care, aware that they are searching for fragments of broken humanity.
From BBC ● Jan. 23, 2025
Like 20th Century Fox’s “Hidden Figures,” and HBO’s “Something the Lord Made,” “The Six Triple Eight” excavates a thrilling story that has been long buried, in part by the prejudice of its time.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 19, 2024
Dr. Villy actually excavates for his roads, in very praiseworthy fashion.
From Roman Britain in 1914 by F. (Francis) Haverfield
Although the quarry was discovered in 1992 and excavated through 2019, many of the fossils recovered there had never been formally described and remained largely unknown to science.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 8, 2026
Time Team's Prof Carenza Lewis said they had found traces of square features where it is thought people were housed, which "haven't been excavated before, anywhere".
From BBC ● Oct. 4, 2026
The bulk of the canal's construction work involved widening, deepening and modifying existing waterways, while a small section had to be excavated, Xinhua said.
From Barron's ● Sep. 16, 2026
Museum paleontologists excavated some 70% of Thomas’s fossilized skeleton in the early 2000s, making it one of the most complete T. rex specimens ever found.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 16, 2026
A nearly complete skeleton was excavated of an extinct bird—the Jupiter bird, it would later be called.
From "A Tangle of Knots" by Lisa Graff
In Omaha, he cycled through various careers: He started his own excavating business, then began farming, with Warren Buffett later purchasing a farm for him to work.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 19, 2026
Nepal rescuers are still excavating hydropower tunnels swamped by freezing mud, with hundreds of workers among the missing.
From Barron's ● Sep. 11, 2026
Now, he's excavating his diary to write about his rural upbringing and experiences of working in Las Vegas casinos.
From BBC ● Aug. 21, 2026
For Morrison, writing fiction was a form of “literary archaeology,” excavating history, and how the past hovers over the present.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 2, 2026
On July 3, 1908, archaeologists excavating the ancient Minoan palace at Phaistos, on the island of Crete, chanced upon one of the most remarkable objects in the history of technology.
From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
