excavate
Americanverb (used with object)
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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:
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
Jones also worked as a scholar of history and made passionate efforts to excavate the satirical intentions of Chaucer’s “The Knight’s Tale” from beneath centuries of deadpan scholarship.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 13, 2026
In 2022, Sereno returned with a 100-person team and 64 Nigerien guards to excavate the "earth-shattering site".
From Barron's ● Feb. 27, 2026
“But Georgi kept wanting to get underneath it, to excavate it. Explore the fire, explore the trauma. She came in and said, ‘This show is about identity.’
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 11, 2026
I suppose having matriculated to my nineteenth year has provided me with a depth of insight which I am only beginning to excavate.
From "Moon Over Manifest" by Clare Vanderpool
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
The Declaration’s audacious promise that all are created equal, a vow Mr. Amar excavates with the precision of an archaeologist and the flair of a storyteller.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 12, 2025
His team excavates the rubble with care, aware that they are searching for fragments of broken humanity.
From BBC ● Jan. 23, 2025
“Heroes” excavates a stratum of white America with the same incisive probing that “Slave Play” brought to its investigation of our country’s interracial foundation.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 22, 2023
The genus Sitaris, which is allied to the blister-fly and to the oil-beetle, is parasitic on a kind of solitary bee which excavates subterranean galleries, each leading to a cell.
From A Book of Natural History Young Folks' Library Volume XIV. by Jordan, David Starr
On Thursday, workers excavated a 3-by 4-foot area to find the source of the water, plugged the leak and resumed preparing the street to open.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 24, 2026
Within weeks, imagery from Airbus revealed a neatly paved road leading to freshly excavated entrances.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 23, 2026
More than 90% of the fossils excavated from the site were dinosaur fragments.
From BBC ● Jul. 10, 2026
The impact would have instantly excavated the crater while blasting huge volumes of rock, sediment, and seawater into the atmosphere.
From Science Daily ● Jun. 30, 2026
By mid November the foundation hole for the apse and choir had been completely excavated.
From "Cathedral: The Story of Its Construction" by David Macaulay
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
After excavating more than 100 tons of fossils over the years, he added, "If you can brave the elements and are willing to go after the unknown, you might just uncover a lost world."
From Science Daily ● Feb. 23, 2026
Opening drawers, peering into the fridge, excavating the freezer.
From Salon ● Jan. 11, 2026
He said Butyagin had ensured conservation and preservation of the site he was excavating.
From BBC ● Dec. 25, 2025
For the next hour, aided by the light of the full moon and a sputtering candle Fadi had found in the empty house, they crawled around in the dirt, excavating dozens of shallow holes.
From "Shooting Kabul" by N. H. Senzai
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.
