raw material

American  

noun

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

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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

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Etymology

Origin of raw material

First recorded in 1790–1800

Example Sentences

The problem for data geeks like Savouri, however, and for investors, is the increasingly unreliable raw material that governments are providing them.

From MarketWatch • Apr. 15, 2026

Fuel and raw material shortages, chronic underinvestment and nationalisations have hollowed out the local economy.

From BBC • Mar. 26, 2026

The bank thinks recent share price weakness in Continental had effectively discounted any such sale even happening on account of recent uncertainty in raw material prices and availability, rates and valuations.

From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 25, 2026

That the statue survived at all is exceptional: in antiquity, bronze was a valuable raw material routinely melted down for weapons, coins or everyday objects.

From Barron's • Mar. 20, 2026

It is precisely this quality that makes facts the raw material of science, for science, too, is a peculiar amalgam of the real and the cultural.

From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton