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Synonyms

raw material

American  

noun

  1. material before being processed or manufactured into a final form.


raw material British  

noun

  1. material on which a particular manufacturing process is carried out

  2. a person or thing regarded as suitable for some particular purpose

    raw material for the army

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

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.

See Examples For:

The raw material for this enterprise is a 2012 tweet by El-Sayed’s half-sister describing a conversation with their mother about her activism in the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt in the early 1970s.

From Salon ● Oct. 20, 2026

As a result, there is no incentive to rebuild inventories of the steel making raw material, the analysts say.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 16, 2026

Affin Hwang downgrades Press Metal to hold from buy, and cuts its target price to 7.70 ringgit from 9.40 ringgit, citing less-favorable raw material price trends and a plateau in aluminium price momentum.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 16, 2026

Besides a growing reliance on inputs and raw material, Chinese imports to India are also being propelled by other macroeconomic trends.

From BBC ● Oct. 5, 2026

The man realized that the animals on Salatin’s farm were not being treated like unfeeling raw material, but like living creatures.

From "The Omnivore's Dilemma" by Michael Pollan

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