refinement

refinement
    n 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}, {refinement},
         {culture}, {cultivation}, {finish}]
    2: the result of improving something; "he described a refinement
       of this technique" [syn: {refinement}, {elaboration}]
    3: the process of removing impurities (as from oil or metals or
       sugar etc.) [syn: {refining}, {refinement}, {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}, {refinement}]
    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: {refinement},
       {civilization}, {civilisation}]
    

Refinement \Re*fine"ment\ (r?*f?n"ment), n. [Cf. F.
   raffinement.]
   1. The act of refining, or the state of being refined; as,
      the refinement or metals; refinement of ideas.
      [1913 Webster]

            The more bodies are of kin to spirit in subtilty and
            refinement, the more diffusive are they. --Norris.
      [1913 Webster]

            From the civil war to this time, I doubt whether the
            corruptions in our language have not equaled its
            refinements.                          --Swift.
      [1913 Webster]

   2. That which is refined, elaborated, or polished to excess;
      an affected subtilty; as, refinements of logic. "The
      refinements of irregular cunning." --Rogers.
      [1913 Webster]

   Syn: Purification; polish; politeness; gentility; elegance;
        cultivation; civilization.
        [1913 Webster]
    

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