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excavation - Wiktionary, the free dictionary Jump to content

excavation

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

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Etymology

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From Latin excavātiō (“a hollowing out”), from excavō (“I hollow out”), from ex + cavō (“I hollow out”), from cavus (“hollow”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱewh₁- (“vault, hole”).

Pronunciation

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  • IPA(key): /ˌɛkskəˈveɪʃn/
  • Audio (US):(file)
  • Hyphenation: ex‧ca‧va‧tion
  • Rhymes: -eɪʃən

Noun

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excavation (countable and uncountable, plural excavations)

  1. (uncountable) The act of excavating, or of making hollow, by cutting, scooping, or digging out a part of a solid mass.
    Near-synonyms: hollowing out, hollowing
    1. Especially, the trade of digging engineered holes for building foundations, roadbed preparations, and similar purposes.
  2. (countable) A cavity formed by cutting, digging, or scooping.
    • 1924 March, E. J. Garwood, “Himalayan Glaciation”, in The Geographical Journal‎[1], volume LXIII, number 3, London: Royal Geographic Society, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 244:
      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.
  3. (countable) An uncovered cutting in the earth, in distinction from a covered cutting or tunnel.
  4. (countable) The material dug out in making a channel or cavity.
  5. (uncountable) Archaeological research that unearths buildings, tombs and objects of historical value.
  6. (countable) A site where an archaeological exploration is being carried out.
    • 2025 May 2, Amarachi Orie, “Archaeologists discover true identity of Costa Rica shipwrecks long thought to be pirate ships”, in CNN‎[2]:
      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.
  7. (countable) Something uncovered by archaeological excavation.
    • 1990, Wayne Jancik, The Billboard Book of One-Hit Wonders, →ISBN, page 392:
      To date, [Taco's 1982 cover of Irving Berlin's 1935] "Cheek To Cheek" and similar auditory excavations have fared poorly.
  8. (figurative) The act of discovering and exposing or developing (a quality).
    • 2015, Anne Manne, The Life of I : The New Culture of Narcissism:
      Chua looks at the landscape of childhood rather like a mining engineer looks at a pristine landscape—ripe for the excavation of talent.
    • 2015, John F. Collins, Revolt of the Saints:
      This Andrade, a lawyer, seemed to enjoy bureucratic process as much as Mário de Andrade valorized the enthnographic excavation of creativity.
    • 2024, Geraldine Healy, Ahu Tatli, Cynthia Forson, Mustafa B. Öztürk, “Introduction—the pervasive nature of inequalities”, in Cynthia Forson, Geraldine Healy, Mustafa B. Öztürk, Ahu Tatli, editor, Research Handbook on Inequalities and Work, page 7:
      In the same vein, Emirbayer and Desmond (2012) highlight the vital need for deeper scholarly reflexivity as regards race, advocating excavation of hidden presuppositions at social, disciplinary and scholastic levels.

Derived terms

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Translations

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French

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French Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia fr

Pronunciation

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Noun

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excavation f (plural excavations)

  1. excavation

Further reading

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