Herculaneum

American  

[hur-kyuh-ley-nee-uhm] / ˌhɜr kyəˈleɪ ni əm /

noun

1. an ancient city in SW Italy, on the Bay of Naples: buried along with Pompeii by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in a.d. 79; partially excavated.

---

Herculaneum British  

/ ˌhɜːkjʊˈleɪnɪəm /

noun

1. an ancient city in SW Italy, of marked Greek character, on the S slope of Vesuvius: buried along with Pompeii by an eruption of the volcano (79 _ad ). Excavation has uncovered well preserved streets, houses, etc

---

Other Word Forms

• Herculanean adjective
• Herculanensian adjective

Example Sentences

For a more intimate experience, check out the Getty Villa in Malibu, modeled after the Villa dei Papiri in Herculaneum, Italy.

From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 9, 2026

"Finding furniture like that is very rare outside of somewhere like Herculaneum or Pompeii so to have it in a very muddy building site in central London is pretty amazing," he says.

From BBC • Jan. 18, 2026

One of the more remarkable findings was the product of pure scholarship: Mr. Goddio remembered a fresco he’d seen unearthed in Herculaneum, the city buried along with Pompeii by the Vesuvian eruption of A.D.

From The Wall Street Journal • Oct. 14, 2025

Other human remains found elsewhere in Herculaneum had iron oxide deposits in the skull, suggesting that the fluids in the skull were vaporized by the heat, leaving only traces of degraded heme proteins.

From Salon • Mar. 4, 2025

In the 1730s and 40s, building work near Naples had accidentally discovered the buried ruins of the first-century Roman towns Herculaneum and Pompeii, in the shadow of Mount Vesuvius.

From "The Story of Music" by Howard Goodall