refinery
Americannoun
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of refinery
Explanation
A refinery is a facility where raw materials are converted into some valuable substance by having impurities removed. At an oil refinery, crude oil is treated and made into gasoline and other petroleum products. Whenever a material needs to have unwanted parts removed in order to be made into a useable product, it must be refined — clarified or processed. This is done at a plant called a refinery. A sugar refinery, for example, converts sugar cane or beets into familiar white, refined crystals of sugar. Refinery comes from refine, which is rooted in the now-obsolete verb fine, "make fine."
Vocabulary lists containing refinery
Refugee
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The Cay
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The Omnivore's Dilemma
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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:
It notes the hydroxide refinery isn’t yet proven.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 23, 2026
The private equity investment gives investors a slice of the 650,000 barrels-per-day refinery launched two years ago and is currently the largest on the continent.
From Barron's ● Jul. 23, 2026
Then the U.S. shale boom brought in the opposite kind — light sweet crude that expensive refinery equipment doesn’t optimally use.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 21, 2026
In theory this could be explained by a drawdown in domestic stockpiles amid continuing disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz, but refinery output also is declining.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 16, 2026
The water had a sharp, foul smell that let me know there was a tannery upstream, or a refinery.
From "The Name of the Wind" by Patrick Rothfuss
"We have no problem with stocks to supply our refineries," he said.
From Barron's ● Jul. 23, 2026
The largest U.S. refineries were built long ago to best run heavy and sour crude: the thick, higher-sulfur oil from Canada, Venezuela, Mexico and the Persian Gulf.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 21, 2026
Meanwhile, Ukrainian efforts to cripple Russia’s war effort have disrupted crude oil shipments in the Black Sea and fuel production at Russian refineries.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 21, 2026
Typically the tankers receiving the oil will then head toward private refineries in China, known as teapot refineries, who buy the oil at a discount.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 18, 2026
Royal Dutch Shell had borrowed him from his American company because he was an expert in refineries and gasoline production.
From "The Cay" by Theodore Taylor
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.
