archaeologist
Americannoun
-
archaeologists
plural
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of archaeologist
Explanation
An archaeologist is a scientist who studies human history by digging up human remains and artifacts. Lucy, the oldest human known to man — nearly 3.2 million years old — was dug up in Ethiopia by archaeologist. We know about the history of the human species thanks to archaeologists who spend countless hours sifting through dirt and digging through ruins to find evidence of human life from across time. The word archaeologist can also be spelled archeologist. It comes from the Greek root archaeo-, for "ancient, primitive."
Vocabulary lists containing archaeologist
Play by the Rules: Arch
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Occupations
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The Origins of Civilization, Lessons 1–2
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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:
When archaeologist Flinders Petrie excavated the graves in the 1920s, he noticed that unusually large numbers of people had been buried around the kings.
From Science Daily ● Nov. 14, 2026
The legacy of a near-century of colonial rule is still contested but archaeologist Roland Fletcher of the University of Sydney said France had made a valuable contribution.
From Barron's ● Nov. 10, 2026
During the 1950s, excavations led by archaeologist Ralph Solecki uncovered the remains of ten Neanderthals.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 31, 2026
Now Poehler reunites with Schur on Dig, playing archaeologist Elise, an inhibited anti-Knope.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 28, 2026
An archaeologist working 100,000 years from now could piece together a reasonable picture of Muslim belief and practice from the myriad objects he unearthed in a ruined mosque.
From "Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind" by Yuval Noah Harari
Reconstruction of the tomb of the Lord of Sipan, a spiritual and political leader, discovered in 1987 by a team of Peruvian archaeologists led by Walter Alva.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 13, 2026
It was here that archaeologists unearthed the largest bronze statue ever found in Cambodia, "Reclining Vishnu", which is now touring the world.
From Barron's ● Nov. 10, 2026
What worries one of the archaeologists in the documentary and causes him to lose sleep is how similar our world is to that one.
From Salon ● Oct. 30, 2026
Another important discovery followed in 2022, when archaeologists identified nearby burials of elite craftspeople accompanied by gold, silver, and bronze tools.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 18, 2026
The basis of Lapita subsistence can be reconstructed from the garbage excavated by archaeologists at Lapita sites.
From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
