raw
Americanadjective
-
uncooked, as articles of food.
a raw carrot.
-
not having undergone processes of preparing, dressing, finishing, refining, or manufacture.
raw cotton.
- Synonyms:
- makeshift, rough, unprepared
-
unnaturally or painfully exposed, as flesh, by removal of the skin or natural integument.
-
painfully open, as a sore or wound.
-
crude in quality or character; not tempered or refined by art or taste.
raw humor.
-
ignorant, inexperienced, or untrained.
a raw recruit.
- Synonyms:
- unpracticed, unskilled, green, undisciplined
-
brutally or grossly frank.
a raw portrayal of human passions.
-
brutally harsh or unfair.
a raw deal; receiving raw treatment from his friends.
-
disagreeably damp and chilly, as the weather or air.
a raw, foggy day at the beach.
-
not diluted, as alcoholic spirits.
raw whiskey.
-
unprocessed or unevaluated.
raw data.
noun
-
a sore or irritated place, as on the flesh.
-
unrefined sugar, oil, etc.
idioms
adjective
-
(of food) not cooked
raw onion
-
(prenominal) in an unfinished, natural, or unrefined state; not treated by manufacturing or other processes
raw materials for making steel
raw brick
-
(of an edge of material) unhemmed; liable to fray
-
(of the skin, a wound, etc) having the surface exposed or abraded, esp painfully
-
ignorant, inexperienced, or immature
a raw recruit
-
(prenominal) not selected or modified
raw statistics
-
frank or realistic
a raw picture of the breakdown of a marriage
-
(of spirits) undiluted
-
coarse, vulgar, or obscene
-
recently done; fresh
raw paintwork
-
(of the weather) harshly cold and damp
-
informal unfair; unjust (esp in the phrase a raw deal )
noun
-
informal a sensitive point
his criticism touched me on the raw
-
-
informal without clothes; naked
-
in a natural or unmodified state
life in the raw
-
Usage
What does raw mean? Raw describes something that hasn’t been cooked, as in The butcher put a pile of raw meat on the table. Raw can also describe something that hasn’t been processed or refined, as in Raw cotton must be cleaned of plant parts before it can be made into thread or fabric. Raw also refers to skin that was painfully removed, as in The uncomfortable pants rubbed my knees raw. As well, raw can refer to someone who lacks experience or training, as in The rookie detective was too raw to be of any help to the veteran investigator. Raw is rarely used as a noun. It is sometimes used in the idiom in the raw, meaning a natural, unprocessed state or, more informally, referring to something done while naked. Example: The diners became very ill after eating chicken that was more raw that cooked.
Synonym Usage
Raw, crude, rude refer to something not in a finished or highly refined state. Raw applies particularly to material not yet changed by a process, by manufacture, or by preparation for consumption: raw cotton; raw leather. Crude refers to that which still needs refining: crude petroleum. Rude refers to what is still in a condition of rough simplicity or in a makeshift or roughly made form: rude agricultural implements; the rude bridge that arched the flood.
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of raw
First recorded before 1000; Middle English; Old English hrēaw, hrǣw; cognate with Dutch rauw, German roh; akin to Latin crūdus “raw” ( see crude), cruor “blood,” Greek kréas “raw flesh” ( see creatine)
Explanation
Something that's raw is uncooked. A ripe raw tomato tastes very different from one that's slowly roasted with olive oil. Raw food isn't heated, and while raw fruits and vegetables are usually delicious, raw eggs and meat can be dangerous. When you use the word raw to describe things that aren't edible, it generally means "in a natural, untreated state," like raw silk or raw wood. You might also have raw feelings or raw emotions — these are basic and out in the open. The Old English root is hreaw, "uncooked," from a Germanic source.
Vocabulary lists containing raw
The SAT: Multiple-Meaning Words, List 3
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The New SAT: Multiple-Meaning Words
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"The Drummer Boy of Shiloh"
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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:
Bessent’s comments show that the recent spike in rates at the long end of the bond market has “hit a raw nerve” in the White House, said Chris Turner, a markets strategist for ING.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 20, 2026
"You would need the best part of a kilogram of raw chicken a day to get the amount of creatine you need," says Close.
From BBC ● Aug. 20, 2026
Most investors and economists care less about raw figures than other measures, like the ratio of debt to gross domestic product, which provides a better sense of an economy’s borrowing capacity.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 19, 2026
Salmonella can be found in a number of food sources including raw or under-cooked poultry or meat and eggs.
From BBC ● Aug. 18, 2026
“Emotion is the cornerstone of humanity, my child. It’s not something that can be avoided. Even my power is drawn from raw emotion. You’ve seen that, haven’t you?”
From "Kwame Crashes the Underworld" by Craig Kofi Farmer
Gilgamesh’s lament is not the stylized keening of epic tradition—not Achilles’ highfalutin howls after Hector strikes down Patroclus—but something rawer, humbler, more recognizably human.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 24, 2026
“You don’t get much rawer than there. That can be attractive - if you want to see real life.”
From BBC ● Jul. 20, 2024
As these rawer images came out, what struck you?
From Slate ● Nov. 3, 2023
There’s a glossy sheen and an intensity of color to their images, a level of aestheticization that initially seems inconsistent with Ben Hania’s pursuit of a rawer, messier truth.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 3, 2023
Beneath your world of skies and faces and buildings exists a rawer and older world, a place where surface planes disintegrate and sounds ribbon in shoals through the air.
From "All the Light We Cannot See" by Anthony Doerr
Three years ago, the image of a distraught Coco Gauff crying under a towel was one of the rawest moments from a one-sided French Open women's final.
From BBC ● Jun. 7, 2025
It’s genuinely therapeutic to just peel back all the layers and say the rawest, realest version of your truth.
From Seattle Times ● Jan. 3, 2024
In “Anatomy of a Fall,” even the rawest of emotional truths turn out to be booby-trapped, and the ever-thin boundaries between life and art are repeatedly violated.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 13, 2023
Fatoumata Diawara, from Mali, rides a galloping six-beat modal groove topped by the Cuban pianist Roberto Fonseca in “Blues,” which is by far the rawest song on her new album of international fusions, “London Ko.”
From New York Times ● May 12, 2023
The files on the murders of the Osage contained history in its rawest form: bits of data vacuumed up without any chronology or narrative, like a novel whose pages were out of order.
From "Killers of the Flower Moon" by David Grann
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.
