excavation

American  

[eks-kuh-vay-shuhn] / ˌɛks kəˈveɪ ʃən /

noun

• excavations
  plural

1. a hole or cavity made by excavating.

2. the act of excavating.

3. an area in which excavating has been done or is in progress, as an archaeological site.

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Synonym Usage

See hole.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• nonexcavation
  noun
• reexcavation
  noun
• excavational
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• excavations
  plural

Etymology

Origin of excavation

First recorded in 1605–15; from Latin excavātiōn- (stem of excavātiō ) “a hollowing.” See excavate, -ion

Explanation

Excavation is the act or process of digging, especially when something specific is being removed from the ground. Archaeologists use excavation to find artifacts and fossils. There are many types of excavation, but they all involve digging holes in the earth. Mining for coal, gold, or diamonds all require excavation, and before buildings and houses can be built, there is often some excavation that's done before a foundation can be poured. The Latin source of excavation is excavationem, "a hollowing out," from excavare, "to hollow out," with its roots of ex-, "out," and cavare, "to hollow."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

excavation excavations

It culminated in the excavation of a landfill site at Milton, Cambridgeshire, which lasted several months but found nothing.

From BBC ● Sep. 24, 2026

Satellite imagery reviewed by the Center for Strategic and International Studies indicates “a clear surge in construction activity in 2026” and a shift “from active excavation toward probable internal construction.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 10, 2026

“Now all of it — excavation equipment, notes, samples — it’s all burned. And we don’t even have records for them,” Al-Sanusi said.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 8, 2026

Major construction projects can damage or destroy fossil deposits, but they can also expose layers of rock that scientists would otherwise have little chance of reaching with traditional excavation tools.

From Science Daily ● Sep. 8, 2026

But amazing advances in underwater discovery and excavation technology have made the finding and recovery of even the most seemingly inaccessible wrecks more possible than previously thought.

From "Shipwrecked!" by Martin W. Sandler

The council said local residents would have opportunities to get involved in further archaeological excavations and activities as the project continues.

From BBC ● Oct. 4, 2026

Moutsopoulos led excavations on the Greek island of Saint Achilleios on Little Prespa Lake near the border between Greece and Albania and not far from the frontier with North Macedonia.

From Barron's ● Oct. 2, 2026

Those excavations were designed to determine how people collected and used plants inside the cave in the distant past.

From Science Daily ● Sep. 15, 2026

While they are still to be fixed, water in the river is again running freely after a multi-agency and community effort saw vital excavations and tree removal take place.

From BBC ● Sep. 8, 2026

The long and arduous series of excavations that took place between the summers of 1976 and 1984 included 9,800 working days.

From "Shipwrecked!" by Martin W. Sandler

Related Words

• dig
• mining
• removal