refinery
Americannoun
-
refineries
plural
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
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The Cay
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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:
“In the meantime, restored crude-oil flows remain precarious and refinery crack spreads are likely to stay high.”
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 21, 2026
Russia on Thursday reported that an oil refinery in Ryazan, south of the capital, Moscow, had been hit in a "large-scale attack".
From Barron's ● Oct. 15, 2026
However, easing Russian diesel export restrictions is unlikely to materially improve supply while refinery capacity remains impaired, and fresh disruptions could tighten the market further.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 14, 2026
For context, the proposed 4.8 million metric tons is roughly 36 million barrels, or 400,000 barrels a day over three months — and delivery depends on refinery availability, said Babin.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 9, 2026
The U.S. customs office was kept busy inspecting oil tankers from the Middle East which supplied crude oil to the refinery at Hess Oil.
From "Hole in My Life" by Jack Gantos
Instead of sending oil directly to Chinese refineries, tankers linked to Iran ferried the crude to waters off the coast of Malaysia and Singapore.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 22, 2026
Most of the oil produced from Rosebank would be sent to the Netherlands because the UK's remaining refineries are not equipped to process the heavier type of crude oil extracted from the North Sea.
From BBC ● Oct. 21, 2026
Inventory draws are projected to accelerate in October as seasonal demand rises and refineries undergo routine maintenance.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 16, 2026
While power plants and oil refineries have been hit, data centers and internet facilities are becoming the latest quarry for drone and missile strikes — and not just in Europe.
From Salon ● Oct. 15, 2026
These led to observation decks and to adjoining refineries studded with less impressive stacks.
From "Middlesex: A Novel" by Jeffrey Eugenides
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
