Dictionary.com
Thesaurus.com

oil sands

Cultural  
  1. Surface deposits of tarry sand that contain large quantities of petroleum.


Discover More

The major deposits of oil sands in North America are in the western United States and northern Canada.

Extracting the oil from these sands is difficult and expensive.

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.

The oil sands, meanwhile, are in the opposite situation.

From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 16, 2026

Much of that volume is heavy oil sands crude flowing primarily to the U.S.

From Barron's • Jan. 3, 2026

While statistics are fuzzy, a large percentage of the fly-in, fly-out workers in Alberta’s oil sands are Newfoundlanders.

From New York Times • Apr. 13, 2024

It said it would also end direct funding for any oil and gas projects in the Amazon or in the Arctic Circle, or which were aimed at extracting, processing or transporting oil from oil sands.

From BBC • Feb. 9, 2024

Dave sniffed the pleasing, pungent odor of the crude oil sands.

From Gunsight Pass How Oil Came to the Cattle Country and Brought a New West by Raine, William MacLeod