excavation
Americannoun
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excavations
plural
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a hole or cavity made by excavating.
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the act of excavating.
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an area in which excavating has been done or is in progress, as an archaeological site.
Synonym Usage
See hole.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
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."
Vocabulary lists containing excavation
The Alchemist
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Written in Bone
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Island of the Blue Dolphins
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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:
Sediment plumes generated by seabed excavation and processing pose significant risks to ecosystems and public health, said marine scientist Bronwen Currie.
From Barron's ● Aug. 25, 2026
More excavation will be needed before researchers can identify exactly what happened there.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 22, 2026
Emily Lindsey, curator and excavation site director at the La Brea Tar Pits’ center, said the discovery of the ice age toad is an example of the ongoing discoveries being made at the museum.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 7, 2026
Northumbrian Water said it had discovered damaged private and public pipework, as well as incorrectly fitted household pipes on Beverley Terrace, during recent survey and excavation work.
From BBC ● Jul. 16, 2026
Afterward, Haas, Creamer, and a Peruvian archaeologist, Alvaro Ruiz, drove a four-by-four through the back roads of the area between that excavation and the Fortaleza Valley.
From "1491" by Charles C. Mann
Kusman was hired as a labourer on the Cavustepe excavations after his military service in the 1960s and there encountered his first stele.
From Barron's ● Aug. 10, 2026
"Our excavations may tell us something about the end of Urartu," he said, noting that researchers have found "the traces of a very powerful earthquake."
From Barron's ● Aug. 10, 2026
"Restoration work has now begun along with excavations," he says.
From BBC ● Aug. 8, 2026
The mission had previously discovered Greek papyri positioned in similar ways during earlier excavations.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 15, 2026
In the decades that followed, extensive excavations revealed to increasingly intrigued eighteenth-century Europeans how sophisticated - and, to their consternation, how saucy - their ancient ancestors had been.
From "The Story of Music" by Howard Goodall
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.
