kiln
Americannoun
-
kilns
plural
verb (used with object)
-
kilns,
present (3rd person singular)
-
kilned,
past participle, past
-
kilning
present participle
noun
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
kilnsimple
-
kilnssimple
-
have kilnedperfect
-
has kilnedperfect
-
am kilningprogressive
-
are kilningprogressive
-
is kilningprogressive
-
have been kilningperfect progressive
-
has been kilningperfect progressive
Past
-
kilnedsimple
-
had kilnedperfect
-
was kilningprogressive
-
were kilningprogressive
-
had been kilningperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of kiln
before 900; Middle English kiln ( e ), Old English cylen < Latin culīna kitchen
Explanation
A kiln is a special kind of oven for firing things like pottery and bricks. A ceramic artist might use a kiln once a week to fire the bowls he's made from clay. Some kilns look more like furnaces than ovens, and they reach temperatures far beyond regular household ovens. Electricity is used to power many modern kilns, while others use older techniques of burning wood or even coal. Making mugs and bowls is the primary use of kilns, but there are some that dry lumber, tobacco leaves, or hops as well. The Old English word was cyln, from the Latin root culina, "kitchen or cooking stove."
Vocabulary lists containing kiln
A Single Shard
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Visual Arts - Introductory
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Visual Arts - High School
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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.
See Examples For:
This high-temperature firing process works somewhat like baking clay in a kiln, causing the zirconia particles to fuse together and form a dense, hardened material.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 23, 2026
At a cavernous facility in Morbi, in India's western Gujarat state, a 200-metre-long propane-powered kiln that normally fires clay nonstop is silent.
From Barron's ● Mar. 29, 2026
With funds from a wartime grant, a small room off the main space was outfitted with pottery wheels, work tables and a kiln, and stocked with blocks of clay, paint and other art supplies.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 29, 2025
After this, the wood goes into a large kiln where it is dried in a process that can last anywhere from 10 days to six weeks.
From BBC ● Nov. 6, 2025
“Fire away,” he said, glancing at the nearby kiln.
From "The Name of the Wind" by Patrick Rothfuss
A large guan stoneware jar, from the Newark Museum of Art, is one of only a few examples of an experimental eighth- to ninth-century splashed-glaze technique practiced at the Duandian kilns.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 17, 2026
The Systemiq research estimates that roughly a third of Himalayan glacier melt is driven by black carbon, much of it originating from brick kilns in the plains.
From BBC ● Sep. 13, 2026
Producers roast the rounded hearts of agave plants in fire pits or kilns, then crush and ferment the cooked material before distilling it in smaller batches.
From Science Daily ● Apr. 26, 2026
Blazing-hot kilns in India's $6.5 billion ceramics manufacturing hub employing hundreds of thousands of people have gone cold, shut down in an energy crunch caused by the Middle East war.
From Barron's ● Mar. 29, 2026
The kilns in the neighbouring villages were kept busy firing the bricks, but their output was insufficient, and the carts had to go farther afield, returning dusty and brick-filled.
From "Nectar in a Sieve" by Kamala Markandaya
Then, last spring, she attracted attention by building a second house for herself, of rosy, freshly kilned brick, abutting the compound of Roshan, the village’s most powerful man.
From New York Times ● Jan. 30, 2016
His "giant" body, "kilned by tropical suns and arctic winds" to a permanent bronze, possesses "a strength superhuman."
From Time Magazine Archive
The handmade brick of the house kilned out of the dirt it stood on.
From "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy
It gave him a strange, off-kilter appearance, like a Parian bust that had slumped during kilning due to some internal imbalance.
From "The City Beautiful" by Aden Polydoros
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
