Refining

How to spell refining

8 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce refining

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does refining mean?

1. verbRemoving impurities or unwanted matter from a raw substance to make it pure or usable.
2. verbMaking small improvements to something so that it becomes more polished or precise.

Refining in a sentence

• The plant specialises in refining crude oil into petrol and diesel.

• The team spent months refining the design before launch.

• Refining sugar from beet involves several stages of filtering.

• She is still refining her presentation to make it clearer.

Where does refining come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This is the present participle of the verb 'refine', which English assembled in the middle 1500s from the prefix 're-', meaning 'again' or 'thoroughly', and the verb 'fine', meaning 'to make pure or clear'. That 'fine' came through Old French 'fin' from the Latin 'finis', which literally meant 'end', 'boundary' or 'limit'; from the idea of a thing being brought to its finished, ultimate state grew the sense of something being perfect, pure or of the highest quality. So to refine was originally to bring a substance to its purest, most finished condition, a meaning still alive when we speak of refining sugar or oil. The same Latin 'finis' sits behind a surprising spread of everyday words, including 'finish', 'final', 'define' and even 'fine' meaning excellent. For spellers the trap is purely mechanical: the silent 'e' of 'refine' is dropped before the '-ing', so it is 'refining' and never 'refineing'.

How the word is built

• re- (again, thoroughly)
• fine (from Latin finis: end, limit, hence 'made pure')
• -ing (present participle/gerund)