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:
At a polling station near the oil refinery, I spoke to voters about the attack.
From BBC ● Sep. 21, 2026
India supplied about 120,000 tonnes, or roughly 70%, mostly petrol refined from Russian crude at a refinery in Gujarat, worth around €78m.
From BBC ● Sep. 17, 2026
Meanwhile, he said, diesel supplies are tight because of refinery outages following conflicts in the Middle East and Russia.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 14, 2026
This major refinery has already been hit by Ukrainian strikes in recent months.
From Barron's
It was very different in Virginia where my father had been in charge of building a new refinery on the banks of the Elizabeth River.
From "The Cay" by Theodore Taylor
Since the Iran war began, Saudi Arabia had dramatically expanded the use of its East-West pipeline to keep its exports going and to supply its own refineries.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 17, 2026
India is not merely a buyer: its refineries turn Russian crude into fuels that can then be exported.
From BBC ● Sep. 17, 2026
This regulatory subsidy has prompted some California refineries to switch to producing renewable diesel.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 17, 2026
Gulf Coast refineries prefer using to make gasoline, diesel and jet fuel.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 16, 2026
Royal Dutch Shell had borrowed him from his American company because he was an expert in refineries and gasoline production.
From "The Cay" by Theodore Taylor
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.
