Refinery
/rɪˈfaɪnəri/
Definitions
An industrial plant for purifying a crude substance, such as oil, sugar, or metal, to remove impurities.
/rɪˈfaɪnəri/
A facility for purifying raw materials
The oil refinery suffered a major explosion.
💡 Simply: A refinery is like a super-powered factory that cleans up raw materials and makes them better. Imagine a place where they take dirty oil and turn it into clean gasoline for your car!
👶 For kids: A refinery is a big building where they make things cleaner, like taking the yucky stuff out of oil to make it better for cars.
More Examples
The new refinery is expected to increase production capacity by 20%.
Workers at the refinery are concerned about potential layoffs.
The country is heavily dependent on its refineries for fuel production.
How It's Used
"Oil refineries process crude oil into gasoline and other products."
"The sugar refinery turns raw sugar into granulated sugar."
From Middle French *refinerie*, from *refiner* ('to refine'). The process of refining has ancient origins, but the word gained prominence with the industrial revolution and the processing of petroleum.
The term gained widespread use in the 19th century with the growth of industrialization and the development of petroleum refining.
Memory tip
Think of a 'refine' which is what happens at a 'refinery'.