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:
"There are more safety rules for a carton of milk than for AI. There are more safety rules for your oven than for AI," he told the conference.
From Barron's ● Oct. 14, 2026
By the time the pot came out of the oven, most of the flavor was already there.
From Salon ● Sep. 28, 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
One gave off the stink of smelly toe shoes the minute it was put in the oven.
From "The Long-Lost Home" by Maryrose Wood
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
Smart ovens, refrigerators, and doorbells have all gotten the camera treatment, attempting to close the gaps of mystery in our daily lives.
From Slate ● Sep. 14, 2026
"By applying the insecticides, that's when they started falling out of conduit pipes, literally coming out of plug sockets, out of the toasters, out of the back of microwave ovens," he said.
From BBC ● Sep. 9, 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
Two orders come in before we shut the ovens off.
From "Please Ignore Vera Dietz" by A.S. King
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
