raw material

American

noun

material before being processed or manufactured into a final form.

raw material British

noun

material on which a particular manufacturing process is carried out
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.

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

This gas acts as the raw material for building new stars.

From Science Daily • Mar. 30, 2026

"If the main raw material is disturbed, the whole industry is disturbed," Dulera told AFP.

From Barron's • Mar. 29, 2026

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

From BBC • Mar. 26, 2026

By transmuting common uranium into a fissionable product that could be extracted chemically, Seaborg calculated, they could increase the supply of raw material available for a bomb by a hundredfold.

From "Big Science" by Michael Hiltzik

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023