MEANING
1. Make something more accurate, effective, or carefully developed.
2. Process a substance to remove unwanted material and make it purer.
Use it for
Words that belong together
- refine an argument
- refine a method
On the page
Further testing refined the method without changing its central principle.
Nearby words
Word forms
- Base
- refine
- Past tense
- refined
- Past participle
- refined
- Present participle
- refining
Full tense & aspect guide
- Present
- refine
- Present continuous
- am/is/are refining
- Present perfect
- have/has refined
- Present perfect continuous
- have/has been refining
- Past
- refined
- Past continuous
- was/were refining
- Past perfect
- had refined
- Past perfect continuous
- had been refining
- Future
- will refine
- Future continuous
- will be refining
- Future perfect
- will have refined
- Future perfect continuous
- will have been refining
Choose the auxiliary that agrees with your subject. These are constructions of one word, not separate entries.
Usage notes
Primary category: academic / formal. Forms: refine; refines; refined; refined; refining Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1 only. Use numbered sense fields for all meanings. Established modern English lexical item. No separate regional spelling or grammatical inflection entry. Writing functions: analysis, explanation, evaluation. Commonness: moderately common. Third-person singular: refines.
Practice this word in a sentenceYour margin notes
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