refinery
Americannoun
noun
Other Word 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.
Refinery capacity use rose by a fifth of a percentage point to 94.7%, with crude input to refineries down by 90,000 barrels a day at 16.9 million barrels a day.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 3, 2026
Refinery constraints also play a big part in the disconnect between plentiful U.S. supplies and rising gasoline prices.
From MarketWatch • Apr. 29, 2026
Refinery runs were forecast to have risen by 0.3 of a percentage point.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 15, 2026
Police on Saturday with the support of the armed forces deployed public order units to clear the blockade at Whitegate Refinery in southern Ireland.
From Barron's • Apr. 12, 2026
We spent weeks at the huge Shell Haven Refinery with a special instructor who taught us all about fuel oil and diesel oil and gas oil and lubricating oil and kerosene and gasoline.
From "Boy: Tales of a Childhood" by Roald Dahl
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.
