refinery

R1E1F4I1N1E1R1Y4
/rɪˈfaɪnərɪ/

noun

A building, or a mass of machinery, used to produce refined products such as sugar, oil, or metals.

Less commonScrabble 14

Meanings

nounrefinery (plural refineries)

plural refineries

  1. A building, or a mass of machinery, used to produce refined products such as sugar, oil, or metals.

    Pipeable products may be moved from refinery centers to demand zones by truck, barge, intercoastal tanker or pipeline.

    1974, United States Congress Senate Committee on Commerce, Deepwater Port Act of 1973: joint hearings
    3 more examples

    An oil field was discovered at Karamai in 1955, the first of a number to be found in Dzungaria. This oil find has greatly helped China’s industrial development, and the oil fields are now linked to Lanchow by pipeline and by rail. Large refineries have been built at Lanchow and at Tushantzu in Dzungaria.

    1971, Robert Clayton, “Sinkiang”, in China (Finding Out About GEOGRAPHY), New York: John Day Company, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 12, column 1

    On orders from Beijing, state-controlled enterprises have dismantled Baotou refineries and rebuilt them at an enormous mining complex at Bayan Obo in the Gobi Desert, which mines about half the world’s rare earths.

    2013 October 22, Keith Bradsher, “China Tries to Clean Up Toxic Legacy of Its Rare Earth Riches”, in The New York Times, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 16 Mar 2022, International Business

    Hsu’s division is responsible for CPC’s two main facilities, the oil refinery in Kaohsiung’s Siaogang District (小港) and the refinery in Taoyuan’s Gueishan District (龜山), which together process 600,000 barrels of crude oil per day, a report released last year by CPC said.

    2022 January 28, Jason Pan, “CPC division head suspected of bribery”, in Taipei Times, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 27 Jan 2022, Taiwan News, page 2

Origin

  1. Proto-Italic*wre-
  2. Latinre-
  3. Old Frenchre-
  4. Middle Englishre-
  5. Englishre-
  6. Englishfine
  7. Englishrefine
  8. Englishrefinery

From refine + -ry.

Full word history & related roots →

Translations

Arabic مِصْفَاة
  • مِصْفَاة (miṣfāh)building used to produce refined products
Bulgarian рафине́рия
  • рафине́рия (rafinérija)building used to produce refined products
Catalan refineria
  • refineriabuilding used to produce refined products
Chinese Mandarin 精煉廠 /精炼厂
  • 精煉廠 /精炼厂 (jīngliànchǎng)building used to produce refined products
Czech rafinérie
  • rafinériebuilding used to produce refined products
Danish raffinaderi
  • raffinaderibuilding used to produce refined products
Dutch raffinaderij
  • raffinaderijbuilding used to produce refined products
Finnish jalostamo
  • jalostamobuilding used to produce refined products
French raffinerie
  • raffineriebuilding used to produce refined products
German Raffinerie
  • Raffineriebuilding used to produce refined products
Greek διυλιστήριο
  • διυλιστήριο (diylistírio)building used to produce refined products
Hungarian finomító
  • finomítóbuilding used to produce refined products
Indonesian kilang
  • kilangbuilding used to produce refined products
Italian raffineria
  • raffineriabuilding used to produce refined products
Japanese 精錬所, 製油所
  • 精錬所 (seirensho)building used to produce refined products
  • 製油所 (seiyujo)building used to produce refined products
Korean 제유소, 제당소
  • 제유소 (jeyuso)building used to produce refined products
  • 제당소 (jedangso)building used to produce refined products
Malay loji penapis
  • loji penapisbuilding used to produce refined products
Polish rafineria
  • rafineriabuilding used to produce refined products
Portuguese refinaria
  • refinariabuilding used to produce refined products
Romanian rafinărie
  • rafinăriebuilding used to produce refined products
Russian нефтеперераба́тывающий заво́д, НПЗ
  • нефтеперераба́тывающий заво́д (neftepererabátyvajuščij zavód)building used to produce refined products
  • НПЗ (NPZ)building used to produce refined products
  • нефтезаво́д (neftezavód)building used to produce refined products
  • са́харный заво́д (sáxarnyj zavód)building used to produce refined products
Spanish refinería
  • refineríabuilding used to produce refined products
Swedish raffinaderi
  • raffinaderibuilding used to produce refined products
Turkish arıtımevi, rafineri
  • arıtımevibuilding used to produce refined products
  • rafineribuilding used to produce refined products
  • tasfiyehanebuilding used to produce refined products
Ukrainian нафтопереро́бний заво́д, НПЗ
  • нафтопереро́бний заво́д (naftopereróbnyj zavód)building used to produce refined products
  • НПЗ (NPZ)building used to produce refined products
Welsh purfa
  • purfabuilding used to produce refined products
Cite this entry
APA

refinery. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/refinery

MLA

“refinery.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/refinery. Accessed November 2, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “refinery,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/refinery.

Source: refinery on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.