Archaeology

How to spell archaeology

11 letters · 5 syllables

How to pronounce archaeology

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does archaeology mean?

1. nounThe study of human history through the excavation and analysis of physical remains such as buildings, tools, and pottery.

Archaeology in a sentence

• She studied archaeology at university before joining a dig in Egypt.

• The museum funds research in archaeology across several ancient sites.

Where does archaeology come from?

Language of origin: Greek

This word reaches back to the Greek arkhaios, meaning 'ancient' or 'old', which itself grew from arkhe, the 'beginning' or 'origin' of things. Greek joined that to logia, 'the study of', from logos meaning 'word, reason, account', giving a term for the study of ancient matters. It first appeared in English around the early seventeenth century, borrowed by way of Latin archaeologia and French, where it broadly meant the discussion of antiquity. Only in the nineteenth century did it narrow to its modern sense: the systematic study of past human life through excavated remains and artefacts. The same arkhaios root sits inside 'archaic' and 'archive', and the awkward 'ae' digraph that trips up writers is simply the faithful Latin rendering of the Greek vowel pair, which is exactly why the American shortened form 'archeology' feels so tempting.

How the word is built

• archae- (from arkhaios: ancient, old)
• -ology (from logos: study, discourse)

British and American spelling

Archaeology is the British spelling. American English spells it archeology.