 3 definitions found
From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:
refinement
noun
1: a highly developed state of perfection; having a flawless or
impeccable quality; "they performed with great polish";
"I admired the exquisite refinement of his prose";
"almost an inspiration which gives to all work that
finish which is almost art"--Joseph Conrad [syn: {polish},
{culture}, {cultivation}, {finish}]
2: the result of improving something; "he described a
refinement of this technique" [syn: {elaboration}]
3: the process of removing impurities (as from oil or metals or
sugar etc.) [syn: {refining}, {purification}]
4: a subtle difference in meaning or opinion or attitude;
"without understanding the finer nuances you can't enjoy
the humor"; "don't argue about shades of meaning" [syn: {nuance},
{nicety}, {shade}, {subtlety}]
5: the quality of excellence in thought and manners and taste;
"a man of intellectual refinement"; "he is remembered for
his generosity and civilization" [syn: {civilization}, {civilisation}]
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Refinement \Re*fine"ment\ (r?*f?n"ment), noun [Cf. F.
raffinement.]
1. The act of refining, or the state of being refined; as,
the refinement or metals; refinement of ideas.
The more bodies are of kin to spirit in subtilty and
refinement, the more diffusive are they. --Norris.
From the civil war to this time, I doubt whether the
corruptions in our language have not equaled its
refinements. --Swift.
2. That which is refined, elaborated, or polished to excess;
an affected subtilty; as, refinements of logic. ''The
refinements of irregular cunning.'' --Rogers.
Syn: Purification; polish; politeness; gentility; elegance;
cultivation; civilization.
From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:
270 Moby Thesaurus words for "refinement":
Atticism, ablation, abrasion, absoluteness, abstraction,
acculturation, accuracy, acquired taste, appreciation,
appreciation of differences, appreciation of excellence,
appreciativeness, appropriateness, artistic judgment,
attention to detail, attention to fact, beautification, bettering,
betterment, bolting, breeding, care for truth, chasteness,
chastity, choiceness, circumstantiality, civility, civilization,
civilized taste, civilizedness, clarification, clarifying, clarity,
classicalism, classicism, cleaning, cleansing, clearness, colature,
comeliness, concentrate, concentration, connoisseurship,
conscientiousness, correctness, courtesy, courtliness,
critical niceness, criticality, criticalness, cultivated taste,
cultivation, culture, daintiness, decoction, deduction, delicacy,
delicate distinction, delicateness, destructive distillation,
detail, development, differentia, differential, dignity, diplomacy,
directness, discernment, discriminating taste, discriminatingness,
discrimination, discriminativeness, disentanglement,
disinvolvement, distillate, distillation, distinction, down,
downiness, ease, education, edulcoration, elaboration, elegance,
elegancy, elixir, elution, elutriation, embellishment,
enculturation, enhancement, enlightenment, erosion, essence,
essentialization, evolution, exactingness, exactitude, exactness,
excellence, exquisiteness, extract, extraction, faithfulness,
fastidiousness, faultlessness, feel, feeling, felicitousness,
felicity, fidelity, filminess, filtering, filtration, fine palate,
fine point, fine-grainedness, fineness, finesse, finicality,
finicalness, finickiness, finickingness, finish, fittingness,
flawlessness, flow, flowing periods, fluency, fluff, fluffiness,
fussiness, fuzz, fuzziness, genteelness, gentility,
gentlemanlikeness, gentlemanliness, gentleness, good breeding,
good taste, gossameriness, grace, gracefulness, gracility,
graciosity, graciousness, hairline, improvement, infusion,
judiciousness, ladylikeness, leaching, limpidity, literalism,
literality, literalness, lixiviation, lucidity,
making distinctions, margin, mathematical precision, maturation,
meticulousness, minuteness, minutia, narrow margin, narrowing,
naturalness, neatness, nice distinction, niceness,
niceness of distinction, nicety, nuance, palate,
particle of difference, particularity, particularness, peach fuzz,
pellucidity, percolation, perfection, perspicuity, plainness,
point of difference, polish, politeness, politesse, preciseness,
precisianism, precision, propriety, pubescence, punctiliousness,
punctuality, purification, purifying, purity, quality,
quintessence, refined discrimination, refined palate, refining,
removal, restraint, riddling, right, rightness, rigidity,
rigidness, rigor, rigorousness, ripening, satin, satininess,
screening, scrupulosity, scrupulousness, seasoning, seemliness,
selectiveness, sense, sensibility, sensitivity, separation,
severity, shade of difference, sieving, sifting, silk, silkiness,
simplicity, simplification, smoothness, socialization, softness,
sophistication, spirit, spiritualization, straightforwardness,
straining, streamlining, strictness, stripping, stripping down,
suaveness, suavity, subduction, sublation, sublimation,
subtle distinction, subtlety, subtraction, tact, tactfulness,
taste, tastefulness, terseness, textualism, the letter,
unaffectedness, uncluttering, unscrambling, unsnarling, urbanity,
velvet, velvetiness, wide margin, winnowing
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