cooking

American  

[kook-ing] / ˈkʊk ɪŋ /

noun

1. the act of a person or thing that cooks.

2. the art or practice of preparing food; cookery.

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adjective

1. used in preparing foods.

   All of my cooking utensils are packed, so I had to order pizza.

2. suited for use in cooked food.

   The Golden Delicious is our favorite cooking apple, especially for applesauce.

Other Word Forms

• self-cooking adjective

Etymology

Origin of cooking

First recorded in 1635–45; cook ¹ + -ing ¹ for the noun senses; cook ¹ + -ing ² for the adjective senses

Example Sentences

And then I left home, started cooking for myself and the pork chop quietly disappeared.

From Salon • Apr. 10, 2026

If I’m in the cooking mood, I love making comfort food like chicken and rice with cabbage and mac and cheese.

From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 10, 2026

According to trade-intelligence company Kpler, there are 820 commercial vessels in the Persian Gulf, including more than 400 oil tankers and dozens of ships carrying cooking gas and liquified natural gas.

From MarketWatch • Apr. 9, 2026

While domestic cooking gas prices were raised by a modest 7% in early March, the analyst expects OMC losses to have widened to 400 rupees per cylinder following April increases in Saudi oil product prices.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 7, 2026

I thought of her now on the cold night, remembered the wonderfully hot sun cooking down on my back as I paddled.

From "Woodsong" by Gary Paulsen

Related Words

• cookery
• cuisine
• culinary art
• culinary science