raw material
Americannoun
noun
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material on which a particular manufacturing process is carried out
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a person or thing regarded as suitable for some particular purpose
raw material for the army
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.
Studios worried about their intellectual property being misused, and actors feared becoming little more than raw material for AI systems -- and made it a central plank of their strike action in 2023.
From Barron's ● Jul. 22, 2026
By 2030, the bloc wants to increase domestic production and make sure that no country supplies more than 65% of the EU’s annual strategic raw material needs.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 17, 2026
Privacy International also criticised the feature, telling the BBC it was "the latest sign AI companies see people's images and data as raw material to be exploited".
From BBC ● Jul. 8, 2026
Individuals were treated as raw material for the realization of the state’s ends.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 3, 2026
A never-ending line of carts brought the raw material in—thousands of skins, goat, calf, lizard and snake skins—and took them away again tanned, dyed and finished.
From "Nectar in a Sieve" by Kamala Markandaya
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.
