oven
Americannoun
noun
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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.
See Examples For:
The bread is made from Central Milling organic flour and baked fresh in an outdoor oven.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 13, 2026
At the end of the video, Barrymore let her hair down and snapped a selfie against one of the walls in the RV, on which an oven mitt could be seen hanging from a hook.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 8, 2026
Cooking a chicken leg or a potato in the worktop device uses less than half the energy of a conventional oven, according to Radio 4's Sliced Bread.
From BBC ● Jul. 8, 2026
He often works 10-hour shifts, frequently dipping his head into the back of the truck—which can feel like an oven in sweltering temperatures.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 3, 2026
Wooden paddles had been propped next to the oven, ready to slide the loaves in and out.
From "The Long-Lost Home" by Maryrose Wood
Aura makes heating equipment that is built into bigger industrial machines, such as presses, ovens and extruders—which make everything from plastic bags and window frames to car parts and snacks.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 4, 2026
The firm recently unveiled a “Screens Everywhere” initiative that also includes washers, dryers and ovens.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 23, 2026
Cooking gas cylinders are a staple in millions of restaurants across India, as authorities have pushed them away from polluting coal or wood-fired ovens.
From Barron's ● Mar. 12, 2026
"We were using 300 kilos of wood a week, now it's about 450-600 kilos," he said, explaining that they had turned off the gas burners that help the ovens retain heat.
From Barron's ● Mar. 12, 2026
He wore small bib ovens, a dress shirt, and a bow tie.
From "A Long Way from Chicago" by Richard Peck
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.
