refractory

1. 1.

   lining consisting of material with a high melting point; used to line the inside walls of a furnace

   Synonymsfurnace lining

   Broaderlining

Other forms of refractory

plural

refractories·

Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.

Questions about refractory

What does refractory mean?

refractory means "not responding to treatment". That is the primary sense; the word has 4 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in refractory?

refractory has 4 syllables: re-frac-to-ry. The stress falls on "frac". In IPA it is /ɹəˈfɹæktɚi/.

What is another word for refractory?

Close synonyms include stubborn, fractious, recalcitrant, furnace lining. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is refractory a common word?

refractory is banded "Rare" — specialist or archaic — most readers will not have met it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.