Meaning & use
distillery
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Meaning
nouncountable
A factory or building where strong alcoholic drinks are made by heating a fermented liquid and collecting the vapor.
Grammar: Has a plural: two distilleries; often used with a place name, as in a Scottish distillery.
Patterns
- a distillery in somewhere
- work at a distillery
We toured a whisky distillery in the Highlands and tasted three different malts.
The old distillery was turned into a hotel and restaurant.
She got a job at a local gin distillery after finishing college.
Word forms
| plural | distilleries |
|---|
Common combinations
- whisky distillery
- The whisky distillery has been run by the same family for 150 years.
- craft distillery
- A craft distillery opened on our street last spring.
- visit a distillery
- If you visit a distillery, book the tour in advance.
- distillery tour
- The distillery tour ends with a tasting.
- run a distillery
- He dreams of running a distillery of his own one day.
Synonyms and how they differ
- still
- A still is the piece of equipment inside a distillery, so it names the apparatus rather than the whole business or building.
- brewery
- A brewery makes beer by fermenting grain, without the heating-and-collecting step, so it is not a true synonym.
- winery
- A winery makes wine from grapes and does not produce spirits, so it is a neighbouring word rather than a replacement.
Word family
- distill verb
- to purify or make a liquid by heating and condensing it
- distiller noun
- a person or company that makes spirits
- distillation noun
- the process of distilling a liquid
- distilled adjective
- produced or purified by distillation, as in distilled water
Commonly confused: distillery or brewery?
distillery vs brewery
A brewery produces beer; a distillery produces spirits like whisky, vodka or gin.
Practice
Which place would you visit to see how whisky is made?
Choose one answer.
Whisky is a spirit made by distilling, so a distillery is right. A brewery makes beer, which is tempting but not distilled.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “distillery”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.