as in to dig
to hollow out or form (something) by removing earth
workmen are excavating a long tunnel that will eventually replace the aboveground expressway
Synonyms & Similar Words
Relevance
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to
show current usage.
Read More
Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors.
Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of excavate
Embedded in a rock formation along the side of a pond, the region’s Department of Mineral Resources excavated 10 bones, including a front leg bone estimated to be nearly six feet.
—
Briana Alvarado, ABC News, 14 May 2026
Her series are inevitably female-centric and like the Brontës, who wrote 200 years and a few miles away, her work excavates the drama of daily life and the tension between good and evil that sings below any surface.
—Culture Critic, Los Angeles Times, 14 May 2026
Arthur Jafa and Richard Prince excavating aesthetics and the American psyche with fifty-plus works appropriating, inverting, and referencing pop cultural ephemera from movies to social media posts.
—Erica Firpo, Forbes.com, 14 May 2026
Also already under way this summer is the first annual maintenance of the new pitch, where the top 10 millimetres are being replaced, compared with the best part of 600 millimetres that had to be excavated a year ago when the new surface was laid.
—Richard Sutcliffe, New York Times, 14 May 2026
See All Example Sentences for excavate
Briana Alvarado, ABC News, 14 May 2026
Her series are inevitably female-centric and like the Brontës, who wrote 200 years and a few miles away, her work excavates the drama of daily life and the tension between good and evil that sings below any surface.
—Culture Critic, Los Angeles Times, 14 May 2026
Arthur Jafa and Richard Prince excavating aesthetics and the American psyche with fifty-plus works appropriating, inverting, and referencing pop cultural ephemera from movies to social media posts.
—Erica Firpo, Forbes.com, 14 May 2026
Also already under way this summer is the first annual maintenance of the new pitch, where the top 10 millimetres are being replaced, compared with the best part of 600 millimetres that had to be excavated a year ago when the new surface was laid.
—Richard Sutcliffe, New York Times, 14 May 2026
See All Example Sentences for excavate
Recent Examples of Synonyms for excavate
Verb
-
There are a few possibilities for non-gopher holes, including the Norway rat, voles, moles, rabbits, ground squirrels and snakes, which don’t dig their own underground burrows but take over old tunnels and improve upon them.—
Joan Morris,
Mercury News,
18 May 2026
-
The wheels were set in motion, and Kubicek started digging to find out whether anything like it had been done before.—
Jeff Miller,
Rolling Stone,
18 May 2026
Verb
-
Harris’ infield single on a ball Hoerner tried to scoop and shovel with his mitt errantly got past first baseman Michael Busch, prompting Counsell to end Imanaga’s night at 96 pitches and right-handed hitting Ha-Seong Kim due up.—
Meghan Montemurro,
Chicago Tribune,
14 May 2026
-
In the medieval town of Belvì, men roast chestnuts—marroni—over an open fire in a frying pan the size of a swimming pool and then serve them to the crowd by shoveling them into troughs.—
IEEE Spectrum,
IEEE Spectrum,
7 May 2026
Cite this Entry
“Excavate.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/excavate. Accessed 24 May. 2026.
Copy CitationLove words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
