excavate
verb
Simple meaning
To dig up or scoop out material from the ground.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
ehkskuhvaytSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈɛkskəveɪt
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.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
verb
Remove the inner part or the core of
“The mining company wants to excavate the hillside.”
transitive
To remove part of (something) by scooping or digging it out.
Find by digging in the ground
transitive
To uncover (something) by digging.
transitive
To make a hole in (something); to hollow.
Recover through digging
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- C2 · Proficient (estimated)
- Frequency
- Rare
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Remove the inner part or the core of
Used this way, excavate is a common word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
“The mining company wants to excavate the hillside.”
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Common
- Connotation
- No strong connotation
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use excavate
- “The mining company wants to excavate the hillside.”verb
- “Carnegie had a lake excavated for Princeton University's rowing team.”verb
- “Schliemann excavated Troy.”verb
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
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Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Word family
Words built from the same root.
A workman who excavates for foundations of buildings or for quarrying.
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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.