refinery
Americannoun
-
refineries
plural
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of refinery
Explanation
A refinery is a facility where raw materials are converted into some valuable substance by having impurities removed. At an oil refinery, crude oil is treated and made into gasoline and other petroleum products. Whenever a material needs to have unwanted parts removed in order to be made into a useable product, it must be refined — clarified or processed. This is done at a plant called a refinery. A sugar refinery, for example, converts sugar cane or beets into familiar white, refined crystals of sugar. Refinery comes from refine, which is rooted in the now-obsolete verb fine, "make fine."
Vocabulary lists containing refinery
Refugee
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The Cay
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The Omnivore's Dilemma
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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.
See Examples For:
Treasury, which sanctioned the company’s refinery business earlier this year, saying it bought billions of dollars’ worth of Iranian petroleum.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 16, 2026
"And what if the Yaroslavl refinery shuts down for good?" asked Dmitry, visibly annoyed as he filled up his Lexus after a 15-minute wait at a petrol station in eastern Moscow.
From Barron's ● Aug. 12, 2026
On Sunday, the Houthis claimed responsibility for an attack on a Saudi refinery in Jizan on the Red Sea, after also claiming an earlier strike there in late July.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 11, 2026
The Zawiya refinery, west of the capital Tripoli, was hit in a drone strike on Monday evening - the third such incident in two days.
From BBC ● Aug. 11, 2026
They had phoned him that morning to say that the Germans might attempt to shell the refinery and the oil storage tanks, and that he must report to help fight the fires.
From "The Cay" by Theodore Taylor
The drones, built by two separate British companies, have been used in mainland Russia in widespread and successful targeting of military and industrial targets, including refineries and warehouses of online retailer Wildberries.
From BBC ● Aug. 16, 2026
The waiver has let California obtain more fuel from Gulf of Mexico refineries, which has reduced the spread between the state’s gasoline prices and the national average by about 25 cents a gallon.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 14, 2026
With Strait of Hormuz flows unlikely to normalize soon and repairs to Gulf refineries targeted by Iranian attacks expected to take months, the market could remain tight and keep margins elevated for months.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 11, 2026
Ukraine's defence forces previously struck oil refineries in Nizhnekamsk on 12 June.
From BBC ● Aug. 10, 2026
Sometimes a brief tour: a glimpse of the sea in one district, towering forests in another, ugly factories, fields of wheat, stinking refineries.
From "Catching Fire" by Suzanne Collins
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
