Meaning & use
excavation
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Meanings
nouncountable or uncountable
The work of digging out earth, often carefully, to find buried remains or to prepare a site for building.
Grammar: Uncountable for the process, countable for a particular dig.
Patterns
- the excavation of something
The excavation of the Roman villa took five summers.
Construction began after the excavation of the foundations.
Archaeologists led the excavation at the burial mound.
nouncountable
A hole or dug-out area created by digging, or the site where a dig takes place.
Grammar: Count it: several excavations on the hillside.
Patterns
- an excavation in something
Rainwater collected in the deep excavation.
Visitors can walk around the excavation at the edge of the field.
A fence surrounds the excavation to keep people out.
Word forms
| plural | excavations |
|---|
Common combinations
- archaeological excavation
- An archaeological excavation uncovered pottery and coins.
- carry out an excavation
- The team will carry out an excavation next spring.
- excavation site
- The excavation site is closed to the public.
- deep excavation
- A deep excavation was needed for the underground garage.
- excavation work
- Heavy rain delayed the excavation work.
Synonyms and how they differ
- dig
- Dig is the casual word for an archaeological site, while excavation sounds more professional.
- digging
- Digging is any ordinary digging, whereas excavation implies a planned and often scientific operation.
- unearthing
- Unearthing focuses on bringing something out of the ground, not the whole process of digging.
- quarrying
- Quarrying means cutting stone out of the ground for use, a narrower activity.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: excavation or exploration?
excavation vs exploration
Exploration means traveling to learn about a place, not digging into the ground.
Practice
After the ___ of the field, the team found the foundations of a medieval chapel.
Choose one answer.
Excavation is the digging that reveals buried remains. Exhibition and expansion are unrelated, and exploration does not mean digging.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “excavation”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.