expedition
Americannoun
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an excursion, journey, or voyage made for some specific purpose, as of war or exploration.
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the group of persons, ships, etc., engaged in such an activity.
a large expedition of scientists and military personnel.
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promptness or speed in accomplishing something.
He worked with great expedition.
noun
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an organized journey or voyage for a specific purpose, esp for exploration or for a scientific or military purpose
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the people and equipment comprising an expedition
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a pleasure trip; excursion
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promptness in acting; dispatch
Usage
What is an expedition? An expedition is an organized journey or voyage made with a specific purpose, as in Johann packed only a large backpack for the expedition across the Alps. An expedition can describe any trip made with a specific purpose or for the purpose of simple exploration. The term is used formally by militaries, cartographers, groups that aim to protect wildlife, and many others. For example, a military expedition is a specific type of military operation in which a group of soldiers move into a foreign country to accomplish a task. Expedition can also be used to refer to a pleasure trip, especially for a trip to a location that is farther than a person would normally go. Expedition can also refer to the group of people who go on the trip. For example, a scientific expedition to the rainforest can mean the trip to the rainforest or those who go on the trip. Example: We took an expedition around the world to see all the sights.
Synonym Usage
See trip 1.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of expedition
First recorded in 1400–50; late Middle English, from Latin expedītiōn- (stem of expedītiō ) “a (military) traveling.” See expedite, -ion
Explanation
An expedition is an organized journey that is undertaken for a particular purpose, like a group of scientists launching an expedition to South America to seek out a new medicinal herb. An expedition is no walk in the park. It's a serious journey, often with a very specific purpose undertaken by several people and lots of equipment. Sometimes, it can even be dangerous, like when the arctic adventurer was attacked by polar bears during an expedition to the Arctic. Needless to say, he hung up his explorer's hat after that expedition.
Vocabulary lists containing expedition
The Diary of Anne Frank
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Excerpt from "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer"
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Julius Caesar
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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:
Beginning in December 1913, at the age of 55, he co-led an expedition to chart a tributary of the Amazon that is today known as the Rio Roosevelt.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 13, 2026
It bears heavy signs of use and was made by Fuhrer Frères of Gstaad, the same Swiss firm that supplied fifteen axes to the 1924 Everest expedition.
From BBC ● Jul. 12, 2026
The Granma expedition marked the start of a guerrilla war that swept Batista from power and ushered in over six decades of socialism.
From Barron's ● Jun. 23, 2026
The governor’s office characterized the investigation as a fishing expedition.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 19, 2026
“The sanitary condition of the expedition was good, and the quantity of provisions still existing was sufficient to assure us the termination of the voyage without scarcity of food.”
From "Death on the River of Doubt" by Samantha Seiple
Rather than relying exclusively on archival institutional repositories, the studio executed specialized field expeditions to a variety of distinct global environments to gather raw primary telemetry like detailed images, LiDAR scans, weather data and sound.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 5, 2026
Oceanwide’s roots stretch back to the Plancius Foundation, a Dutch research program formed in the 1980s that conducted annual expeditions to Svalbard, the Norwegian archipelago where Longyearbyen is located.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 17, 2026
Hattermann himself has spent hundreds of days living and working on Antarctic ice shelves during research expeditions.
From Science Daily ● May 10, 2026
The company’s bread-and-butter river cruises remain as popular as ever, but Viking is also expanding into ocean travels and expeditions to more far-flung locales.
From Barron's ● Apr. 15, 2026
A fact which partly explains young Frodo’s long expeditions to the renowned fields of the Marish, and the wrath of the injured Maggot.
From "The Fellowship of the Ring" by J.R.R. Tolkien
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.
