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.
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 key raw material for many of these plastic goods is ethylene, which is derived from naphtha, an oil by-product.
From Barron's ● Jun. 28, 2026
Because gas is the raw material needed to make new stars, such outflows could significantly reduce future star formation.
From Science Daily ● Jun. 19, 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
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
