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excavate

[eks-kuh-vayt] / ˈɛks kəˌveɪt /


Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

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His best work tunneled into life’s darkest spaces to excavate ideas about our fears and obsessions, often reflected through dazzling practical effects that matched the naturalism of his greatest feature: a singularly expressive, malleable face.

From Salon ● Jul. 17, 2026

The intersection remained closed Sunday as crews worked to excavate and repair the line.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 25, 2026

They used handheld shovels to excavate blocks of salt, which were processed locally before being shipped around the country.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 13, 2026

"Large impact basins or craters excavate deep into the asteroid, which gives clues about what its interior is made of," said Namya Baijal, a doctoral candidate at the LPL and first author of the paper.

From Science Daily ● Mar. 17, 2026

My brother has claimed one of them for his own; he plans to excavate it, tunneling down from the top, then in from the side to make a side entrance.

From "Cat's Eye" by Margaret Atwood

As Chelsey excavates the details of Rika’s biography, she explores the blank spaces and lingering questions surrounding her own obscured origins.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 22, 2026

In a breezy, sun-soaked 90 minutes, Romvari excavates a lifetime of knotted, intergenerational trauma — a phrase that almost feels too heavy and too burdened by cryptic implications, given how this movie explores it.

From Salon ● May 25, 2026

His team excavates the rubble with care, aware that they are searching for fragments of broken humanity.

From BBC ● Jan. 23, 2025

Like 20th Century Fox’s “Hidden Figures,” and HBO’s “Something the Lord Made,” “The Six Triple Eight” excavates a thrilling story that has been long buried, in part by the prejudice of its time.

From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 19, 2024

She sinks a deeper shaft than does our spider, but excavates it in the same way with similar tools, her fangs, and lines it with silk from her own body.

From Under the Maples by John Burroughs

Thomas the T. rex was excavated from Hell Creek in Montana, a site that also produced ancient crocodilian fossils analyzed by the researchers.

From Science Daily ● Sep. 20, 2026

The bulk of the canal's construction work involved widening, deepening and modifying existing waterways, while a small section had to be excavated, Xinhua said.

From Barron's ● Sep. 16, 2026

Museum paleontologists excavated some 70% of Thomas’s fossilized skeleton in the early 2000s, making it one of the most complete T. rex specimens ever found.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 16, 2026

Only the back of the head was visible to George, invisible for centuries was the beak, which was about a foot long when excavated.

From BBC ● Sep. 4, 2026

University of Chicago archaeologist Alan L. Kolata excavated at Tiwanaku during the 1980s and early 1990s.

From "1491" by Charles C. Mann

More than 100 volunteers were involved in excavating test pits which uncovered what were thought to be the medieval boundary walls of the hospital.

From BBC ● Oct. 4, 2026

In Omaha, he cycled through various careers: He started his own excavating business, then began farming, with Warren Buffett later purchasing a farm for him to work.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 19, 2026

Nepal rescuers are still excavating hydropower tunnels swamped by freezing mud, with hundreds of workers among the missing.

From Barron's ● Sep. 11, 2026

For Morrison, writing fiction was a form of “literary archaeology,” excavating history, and how the past hovers over the present.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 2, 2026

So, perhaps, was music, both vocal and instrumental; excavating Caral, Shady discovered thirty-two flutes made of pelican wingbones tucked into a recess in the main temple.

From "1491" by Charles C. Mann




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