refine is on the Academic Word List.

Pronunciation

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Plain form
refine

Third-person singular
refines

Past tense
refined

Past participle
refined

Present participle
refining

  1. When someone refines something, they make it better.
    We need to refine our way of organizing this office.
  2. When people refine a food or other thing, they make it purer.
    They take sugar cane and refine it to make white sugar.

Synonyms

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