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archaeology.

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

11 characters4 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˌɑː.kiˈɒl.ə.d͡ʒi/Received-Pronunciation/ˌɑɹ.kiˈɑ.lə.d͡ʒi/General-American, dialectal/ˌɑɹ.kiˈɒl.ə.d͡ʒi/Canada, dialectal/ˌɐː.kiˈɔl.ə.d͡ʒi/Australia
  1. The study of the past by excavation and analysis of its material remains.

    countable · uncountable
  2. The study of the past by excavation and analysis of its material remains. The actual excavation, examination, analysis, and interpretation.

    countable · uncountable
    The building's developers have asked for some archaeology to be undertaken.
  3. The study of the past by excavation and analysis of its material remains. The actual remains together with their location in the stratigraphy.

    countable · uncountable
    The archaeology will tell us which methods of burial were used by the Ancient Greeks.
  4. The study of the past by excavation and analysis of its material remains. The academic subject; in the USA: one of the four sub-disciplines of anthropology.

    countable · uncountable
    She studied archaeology at Edinburgh University.
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₂er-der.? Proto-Indo-European *h₂ergʰ-der.? Ancient Greek ἄρχω (árkhō) Proto-Indo-European *-h₂ Proto-Indo-European *-éh₂ Proto-Hellenic *-ā́ Ancient Greek -ᾱ (-ā) Ancient Greek -η (-ē) Ancient Greek ἀρχή (arkhḗ) Proto-Indo-European *-yósder. Ancient Greek -ιος (-ios) Ancient Greek ἀρχαῖος (arkhaîos) Proto-Indo-European *leǵ- Proto-Indo-European *-os Proto-Indo-European *lóǵos Proto-Hellenic *lógos Ancient Greek λόγος (lógos) Proto-Indo-European *-h₂ Proto-Indo-European *-éh₂ Proto-Indo-European *-i-eh₂ Proto-Hellenic *-íā Ancient Greek -ῐ́ᾱ (-ĭ́ā) Ancient Greek -λογία (-logía) Ancient Greek ἀρχαιολογίᾱ (arkhaiologíā) English archaeology From Ancient Greek ἀρχαιολογία (arkhaiología, “antiquarian lore, ancient legends, history”), from ἀρχαῖος (arkhaîos, “primal, old, ancient”) + λόγος (lógos, “speech, oration, study”). By surface analysis, archaeo- + -logy.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.