archaeology

noun

Simple meaning

The study of the past by excavation and analysis of its material remains.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

ahrkeeahluhjee

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US device voice

IPA pronunciation (US)

ɑɹkiˈɑlədʒi

This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.

IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

noun

The study of the past by excavation and analysis of its material remains.
The actual excavation, examination, analysis, and interpretation.
The actual remains together with their location in the stratigraphy.
The academic subject; in the USA: one of the four sub-disciplines of anthropology.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty: B1 · Intermediate (estimated)
Frequency: Moderately Common
Typical Use: General and technical use

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: The study of the past by excavation and analysis of its material remains.

Used this way, archaeology is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.

Emotional tone: Neutral
Formality: Neutral
Intensity: Not strongly marked
How common: Moderately common
Connotation: Matter-of-fact
Usage feel: Neutral and straightforward

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

Branch

american archaeologyclassical archaeologybritish archaeologyindian archaeology

Other combinations

historical archaeologyworld archaeologyfield archaeologymedieval archaeology

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Word family

Words built from the same root.

archaeologistnounPerson or profession
An anthropologist who studies prehistoric people and their culture.
archaeologicaladjectiveDerived adjective
Related to The study of the past by excavation and analysis of its material remains.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

marine archaeologynounCompound term
The archeology of underwater sites.
underwater archaeologynounCompound term
The archeology of underwater sites.

More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

Sense: study of the past by excavation and analysis of its material remains

archeology

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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.