raw material

noun

: crude or processed material that can be converted by manufacture, processing, or combination into a new and useful product

Wheat … is raw material for the flour mill …

—C. A. Koepke

broadly : something with a potential for improvement, development, or elaboration

… perplexities are often the raw material of discoveries.

—Agnes M. Clerke

Synonyms of raw material

• potential
• material

Examples of raw material in a Sentence

His experiences during the war were the raw material for the story.

Recent Examples on the Web

She’s worked with 14 suppliers to bring her CPG vision to life—including raw materials suppliers, graphic designers, product developers, food scientists, photographers, sales representatives, retailers, and logistics professionals. —Emma Burleigh, Fortune, 7 June 2026

Polished enough for the global luxury buyer without losing contact with the raw material that made the coast desirable in the first place. —Spencer Elliott, Forbes.com, 6 June 2026

Members then sell recyclable raw materials like aluminum and glass, repurpose food scraps to feed livestock and place the remaining trash into a container for later transport to a landfill. —ABC News, 4 June 2026

The Iran War has also kept the supply of some key raw materials from getting out of the region. —Katie Tarasov, CNBC, 3 June 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1612, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for raw material

• arterial
• bacterial
• ethereal
• funereal
• imperial
• sidereal
• venereal
• antibacterial
• biomaterial
• mycobacterial
• cereal
• virial

Kids Definition

raw material

noun

: something from which a useful or desirable product can be manufactured or produced

wheat and rye are the raw materials for a flour mill

collect raw material for writing a story