Excavation Meaning
/ˌɛkskəˈveɪʃn/Definition, CEFR level C1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
nounThe act of excavating, or of making hollow, by cutting, scooping, or digging out a part of a solid mass.
nounThe act of excavating, or of making hollow, by cutting, scooping, or digging out a part of a solid mass., Especially, the trade of digging engineered holes for building foundations, roadbed preparations, and similar purposes.
Sentence Examples
Human remains were found during the excavation.
The anthropologist is piecing together pottery shards she unearthed at the excavation site.
I used to own an excavation business, and run backhoes.
Synonyms & Antonyms
Synonyms:
Antonyms:
None
CEFR Practice Quiz
The recent archaeological ____ revealed many ancient artifacts from the site.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
During the ____, the workers discovered an old tunnel that had been forgotten for years.
Word Origin & History
From Latin excavātiō (“a hollowing out”), from excavō (“to hollow out”), from ex + cavō (“to hollow out”), from cavus (“hollow”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱewh₁- (“vault, hole”). Equivalent to excavate + -ion.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"Prof. Dainelli made a personal study of the lakes of the Upper Indus lying between its confluence with the Gilgit on the west and the plains of Kashmir on the east. From this district he cites fifty lakes and groups of lakes. Many of these are moraine-dammed, but some of the larger ones, as the Satpor Tso, the Tso Moriri, the Chiun Tso, and the group of lakes associated with the Pángong Tso, he considers to have originated by glacial excavation."
— 1924 March, E. J. Garwood, “Himalayan Glaciation”, in The Geographical Journal, volume LXIII, number 3, London: Royal Geographic Society, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 244:
"Gregory led the excavations alongside marine archaeologist Andreas Kallmeyer Bloch, who is also a curator at the National Museum.
“It’s been a long process and I’ve come close to giving up along the way, but this is undoubtedly the craziest archaeological excavation I’ve yet been part of,” Bloch said in the news release."
— 2025 May 2, Amarachi Orie, “Archaeologists discover true identity of Costa Rica shipwrecks long thought to be pirate ships”, in CNN, archived from the original on 02 Aug 2025:
"To date, [Taco's 1982 cover of Irving Berlin's 1935] "Cheek To Cheek" and similar auditory excavations have fared poorly."
— 1990, Wayne Jancik, The Billboard Book of One-Hit Wonders, →ISBN, page 392:
"Chua looks at the landscape of childhood rather like a mining engineer looks at a pristine landscape—ripe for the excavation of talent."
— 2015, Anne Manne, The Life of I : The New Culture of Narcissism:
"This Andrade, a lawyer, seemed to enjoy bureucratic process as much as Mário de Andrade valorized the enthnographic excavation of creativity."
— 2015, John F. Collins, Revolt of the Saints:
Explore More C1 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
The recent archaeological ____ revealed many ancient artifacts from the site.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
During the ____, the workers discovered an old tunnel that had been forgotten for years.