raw material
Americannoun
noun
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material on which a particular manufacturing process is carried out
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a person or thing regarded as suitable for some particular purpose
raw material for the army
Etymology
Origin of raw material
First recorded in 1790–1800
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.
"But we are actively in discussion with paper manufacturers about how they can produce a raw material in a way that makes it easy to bond."
From BBC ● Jul. 27, 2026
Studios worried about their intellectual property being misused, and actors feared becoming little more than raw material for AI systems -- and made it a central plank of their strike action in 2023.
From Barron's ● Jul. 22, 2026
Cost savings will have a reduced year-on-year impact, raw material headwinds are increasing and the EX60 ramp will only really impact the fourth quarter.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 21, 2026
Around this time some artists began working on a vast scale in remote locations with the landscape itself as their raw material.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 2, 2026
I’m tired of providing oversized boys with the raw material for adolescent jokes about my being a high- maintenance mama, or some sort of luxury item.
From "Bronx Masquerade" by Nikki Grimes
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.
