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

The Churn of Creation Galaxies are remarkably inefficient at taking raw material — gas and dust — and turning it into stars. — Perri Thaler, Quanta Magazine, 30 Oct. 2026

To maximize yields, raw material producers need to work as part of a collective, says ecologist and Nature’s Echo author Thomas Crowther, founding co-chair of the Advisory Board for the United Nations Decade on Ecosystem Restoration. — Bella Webb, Vogue, 29 Oct. 2026

Unlike lithium-ion batteries, sodium-ion systems use sodium, a more abundant raw material than lithium. — Muskan Bhatia, Interesting Engineering, 28 Oct. 2026

The uptick in earnings came as factory-gate prices rose at their fastest pace since mid-2022, driven by higher energy and raw material prices amid the Middle East conflict. — Anniek Bao, CNBC, 27 Oct. 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