Archaeological

How to spell archaeological

14 letters · 6 syllables

How to pronounce archaeological

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does archaeological mean?

1. adjectiveRelating to the study of human history through the excavation and examination of physical remains such as buildings, tools, and pottery.

Archaeological in a sentence

• The building work was halted when an archaeological site was uncovered beneath the car park.

• The museum displays archaeological finds from a Roman settlement.

Where does archaeological come from?

Language of origin: Greek

This word reaches back to the Greek arkhaios, meaning 'ancient' or 'old', which itself grew from arkhe, meaning 'beginning' or 'origin'. Greek thinkers combined arkhaios with logia, the practice of studying or giving an account of something, to form the idea of the study of ancient things. The noun 'archaeology' entered English in the seventeenth century, at first meaning the study of antiquity in general before it narrowed to the excavation and analysis of past human life through physical remains. The adjective 'archaeological' was then built by adding the familiar -ical ending used across the sciences. The tricky 'ae' in the spelling preserves the Greek diphthong faithfully, and it sits right next to the 'ch' that stands for the Greek letter chi, which is exactly why writers so often drop a letter or reorder the cluster. The same arkhaios root surfaces in 'archaic' and 'archive', a useful reminder that the 'a' before the 'e' belongs there.

How the word is built

• archaeo- (from Greek arkhaios: ancient, old)
• -log- (from Greek logos: study, account)
• -ical (adjective suffix)

British and American spelling

Archaeological is the British spelling. American English spells it archeological.