raw

American  

[raw] / rɔ /

adjective

rawer, rawest

1. uncooked, as articles of food.

   a raw carrot.

2. not having undergone processes of preparing, dressing, finishing, refining, or manufacture.

   raw cotton.

   Synonyms:

   makeshift, rough, unprepared

3. unnaturally or painfully exposed, as flesh, by removal of the skin or natural integument.

4. painfully open, as a sore or wound.

5. crude in quality or character; not tempered or refined by art or taste.

   raw humor.

6. ignorant, inexperienced, or untrained.

   a raw recruit.

   Synonyms:

   unpracticed, unskilled, green, undisciplined

7. brutally or grossly frank.

   a raw portrayal of human passions.

8. brutally harsh or unfair.

   a raw deal; receiving raw treatment from his friends.

9. disagreeably damp and chilly, as the weather or air.

   a raw, foggy day at the beach.

   Synonyms:

   wet, cold

10. not diluted, as alcoholic spirits.

    raw whiskey.

    Synonyms:

    neat, straight

11. unprocessed or unevaluated.

    raw data.

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noun

1. a sore or irritated place, as on the flesh.

2. unrefined sugar, oil, etc.

idioms

1. in the raw,

   1. in the natural, uncultivated, or unrefined state.

      nature in the raw.

   2. Informal. in the nude; naked.

      sunbathing in the raw.

raw British  

/ rɔː /

adjective

1. (of food) not cooked

   raw onion

2. (prenominal) in an unfinished, natural, or unrefined state; not treated by manufacturing or other processes

   raw materials for making steel

   raw brick

3. (of an edge of material) unhemmed; liable to fray

4. (of the skin, a wound, etc) having the surface exposed or abraded, esp painfully

5. ignorant, inexperienced, or immature

   a raw recruit

6. (prenominal) not selected or modified

   raw statistics

7. frank or realistic

   a raw picture of the breakdown of a marriage

8. (of spirits) undiluted

9. coarse, vulgar, or obscene

10. recently done; fresh

    raw paintwork

11. (of the weather) harshly cold and damp

12. informal unfair; unjust (esp in the phrase a raw deal )

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noun

1. informal a sensitive point

   his criticism touched me on the raw

2. 1. informal without clothes; naked

   2. in a natural or unmodified state

      life in the raw

raw More Idioms  

More idioms and phrases containing raw

• in the altogether (raw)

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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

• rawishness
  noun
• rawness
  noun
• semirawness
  noun
• half-raw
  adjective
• rawish
  adjective
• semiraw
  adjective
• rawly
  adverb
• semirawly
  adverb

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.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

raw rawer rawest

Cisco now sells custom-designed networking chips as raw components, as well as complete systems and switches and routers with chips built in.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 19, 2026

Today’s frontier progress is increasingly driven by test-time workloads and software development surrounding AI rather than just raw model training, according to Gupta.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 19, 2026

"They are probably the most visceral, raw you'll ever hear the man," said Palao, a music historian and archivist.

From BBC ● Sep. 17, 2026

Expert Mapelli said it was not even clear how much steel the site should ideally be producing or where the raw materials would come from.

From Barron's ● Sep. 17, 2026

Despite the enchanted gloves that were part of her outfit, Seven’s hands felt raw with cold.

From "Witchlings" by Claribel A. Ortega

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

“In some way, we’re in the early Cold War – the Fifties and Sixties, so a much rawer time.”

From BBC ● Aug. 17, 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

"Hatred is the rawest, smelliest, most awful thing that anyone stood in the middle of," he said.

From BBC ● Aug. 31, 2026

Hailed by Rolling Stone as “the rawest, most revealing music documentary in years,” the film is so unflinching that Perry remained backstage while it played at Tribeca.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 7, 2026

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

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

Related Words

• basic
• coarse
• crude
• fresh
• natural
• organic
• rough
• uncooked
• undercooked
• unprocessed
• untreated