Meaning & use
refinery
Last updated
UK/rɪˈfaɪnəri/
US/rɪˈfaɪnəri/
Meaning
nouncountable
A factory where a raw substance such as crude oil or sugar is purified or turned into more useful products.
Grammar: Usually named with the product: an oil refinery, two sugar refineries.
Patterns
- an oil refinery
- work at a refinery
- a refinery in somewhere
A fire at the refinery sent thick smoke over the town.
The refinery turns crude oil into gasoline and diesel.
Several workers at the sugar refinery were laid off.
Word forms
| plural | refineries |
|---|
Common combinations
- oil refinery
- The oil refinery employs about two thousand people.
- refinery workers
- Refinery workers went on strike on Monday.
- refinery fire
- A refinery fire pushed fuel prices up.
- sugar refinery
- The sugar refinery stands beside the river.
- refinery capacity
- Refinery capacity has fallen in the region.
Synonyms and how they differ
- processing plant
- A processing plant is a general term for any factory that treats raw material, while refinery means purifying specific goods.
- distillery
- A distillery makes spirits such as whisky, whereas a refinery purifies oil or similar products.
- factory
- Factory is a much broader word for any place that makes goods.
Word family
- refine verb
- to purify or improve something
- refined adjective
- purified, or polite and elegant
- refinement noun
- a small improvement, or elegance
- refiner noun
- a person or company that refines
Commonly confused: refinery or foundry?
refinery vs foundry
A foundry melts and casts metal; a refinery purifies a substance such as oil.
Practice
Crude oil is turned into gasoline at an oil ___.
Choose one answer.
A refinery is the plant where oil is processed. A pipeline only carries it and a reservoir only stores it.
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