oven
Americannoun
noun
-
an enclosed heated compartment or receptacle for baking or roasting food
-
a similar device, usually lined with a refractory material, used for drying substances, firing ceramics, heat-treating, etc
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of oven
before 900; Middle English; Old English ofen; cognate with German Ofen, Old Norse ofn
Explanation
An oven is a device for baking food using heat. You probably scramble eggs on your stove but bake cupcakes in your oven. Most ovens are in kitchens, whether in private homes or restaurants. Every once in a while, you'll see an outdoor bread or pizza oven too — these are built of brick, stone, or clay, and can safely get hot enough to bake at very high temperatures. Another kind of oven is one that's used for baking ceramics, which is also called a kiln or sometimes a furnace. The very oldest ovens were built thousands of years ago in Central and Eastern Europe.
Vocabulary lists containing oven
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Others, including the parent of Anthony’s Coal Fired Pizza & Wings and Bertucci’s Brick Oven Pizza & Pasta, earlier filed for bankruptcy.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 5, 2026
She talks about the time she got an Easy-Bake Oven as a child: “I stuck my head in it.”
From Los Angeles Times • Aug. 19, 2024
Work started last year to bring the old Baker's Oven building on its High Street back into use as part of a wider Midsteeple Quarter project in the historic heart of the town.
From BBC • Oct. 13, 2023
Oven Method: Preheat oven to 400°F. Place a metal oven-safe rack over a medium baking sheet and spray generously with cooking spray.
From Salon • Apr. 18, 2023
They feed iron ore into the Blast Oven and pour molten steel into core molds from ladles.
From "Middlesex: A Novel" by Jeffrey Eugenides
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
