Meaning & use

excavation

noun·Academic

The act of digging into the ground to uncover something, especially in archaeology or construction.

See it in a sentence

The excavation uncovered pottery fragments dating back more than two thousand years.

Workers paused the excavation after finding what appeared to be an old foundation wall.

A note on using this word

Excavation can refer to the process of digging or, as a countable noun, to the resulting hole or site, as in 'several excavations.'

Words with a similar meaning

digdiggingunearthing

Choose a synonym to suit the sentence. Meanings can overlap without being identical.

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