earthwork

American  

[urth-wurk] / ˈɜrθˌwɜrk /

noun

1. excavation and piling of earth in connection with an engineering operation.

2. Military. a construction formed chiefly of earth for protection against enemy fire, used in both offensive and defensive operations.

3. an artistic work that consists of a large-scale alteration or modification of an area of land in a configuration designed by an artist or of an artist's sculptural installation, as in a museum or gallery, of soil, rock, or similar elemental materials.

---

earthwork British  

/ ˈɜːθˌwɜːk /

noun

1. excavation of earth, as in engineering construction

2. a fortification made of earth

---

Etymology

Origin of earthwork

First recorded in 1625–35; earth + work

Example Sentences

French artist Marguerite Humeau chose an unusual site for her 2023 earthwork “Orisons.”

From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 15, 2026

Next, the researchers used computer modeling to analyze known earthwork sites and predict their spread across the Amazon.

From Scientific American • Oct. 5, 2023

Taking into account such variables as temperature, precipitation, soil type, and distance to bodies of water, the researchers estimate that 16,187 earthwork sites remain undiscovered in the Amazon rainforest, they report today in Science.

From Science Magazine • Oct. 4, 2023

Concentric circular trenches, some as much as 60 feet deep, had been carved into the volcanic rock of the mountaintop, bringing to mind a pre-Columbian earthwork.

From New York Times • Apr. 18, 2023

One of the mounds at Cahokia is believe to be the largest earthwork in the Americas to have been built before the European invasions.

From "An Indigenous People’s History of the United States" by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz

Related Words

• dike
• foxhole
• gorge
• gully
• moat
• pit
• trough
• waterway