oven
Americannoun
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ovens
plural
noun
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an enclosed heated compartment or receptacle for baking or roasting food
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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.
See Examples For:
But lesson one is the foundation for a lot of the soups I make at home: Start in the oven.
From Salon ● Sep. 28, 2026
The next morning, I drizzled a little olive oil over the strata, put it into a 350-degree oven and went to shower.
From Salon ● Sep. 22, 2026
Temperatures below 200 degrees Celsius are comparable to those found inside a conventional kitchen oven.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 21, 2026
For cats exploring the kitchen, be mindful of your oven.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 11, 2026
She’d only agreed to a cat because she’d said they were self-cleaning, like an oven.
From "Sir Fig Newton and the Science of Persistence" by Sonja Thomas
Magic Chef stove, one of the first ovens to be equipped with a clock, recast kitchen work as something that could be measured and controlled.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 7, 2026
Reconsider your “smart” home: Cameras are becoming more and more common in home appliances, including in smart ovens, refrigerators, doorbells, and toothbrushes—even as people decry surveillance measures in public.
From Slate ● Sep. 15, 2026
Their roller kilns - which transport materials through every production phase inside industrial ovens - are powered by electric motors.
From BBC ● Aug. 25, 2026
In Paris in particular this summer, the steep temperatures turned apartments directly under iconic Haussmann-era buildings with zinc-covered roofs into virtual ovens.
From Barron's ● Aug. 11, 2026
The swimming pool was beside their house, which was near the camp with the ovens.
From "The Handmaid's Tale" by Margaret Atwood
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.
