Refinement1. (n.) The act of refining, or the state of being refined; as, the refinement or metals; refinement of ideas.
2. (n.) That which is refined, elaborated, or polished to excess; an affected subtlety; as, refinements of logic.
Thesaurus Entries
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