preheat
Americanverb (used with object)
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preheats,
present (3rd person singular)
-
preheated,
past participle, past
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preheating
present participle
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
preheatsimple
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preheatssimple
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have preheatedperfect
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has preheatedperfect
-
am preheatingprogressive
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are preheatingprogressive
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is preheatingprogressive
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have been preheatingperfect progressive
-
has been preheatingperfect progressive
Past
-
preheatedsimple
-
had preheatedperfect
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was preheatingprogressive
-
were preheatingprogressive
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had been preheatingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of preheat
Explanation
To preheat is to make something become hot beforehand, especially an oven before you bake something in it. Frozen pizza tastes better if you preheat your oven before you cook it. You're most likely to find the verb preheat in a recipe. You might want to preheat your grill for a certain length of time before the guests show up for your barbecue, or preheat your oven before baking a loaf of bread. Preheating ensures that you'll be cooking food at an even, steady temperature and makes it easier not to burn or undercook it. A clue about this word's meaning is the "before" prefix, pre-.
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 fermentation process creates its own heat as the yeast activates, which Heineken also captures to reuse elsewhere in its beer production, such as to preheat water.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 17, 2026
Grease a 9” square baking dish and preheat oven to 350F.
From Salon ● Feb. 29, 2024
Position a rack in the center of the oven, and preheat to 425° F.
From Seattle Times ● Aug. 15, 2023
Always preheat your gas grill with all burners on high, or wait until charcoal briquettes are covered with a gray ash.
From Washington Times ● May 28, 2023
Then I turned the oven on to preheat to 350 degrees and started on my vanilla cupcake recipe.
From "From the Desk of Zoe Washington" by Janae Marks
Chill shaped rolls in the fridge while the oven preheats.
From Seattle Times ● Nov. 15, 2022
Place them on the lined tray to freeze with the others while the oven preheats to 375 °F.
From Fox News ● Dec. 9, 2021
As we wait for those proceedings to finalize, and hope the sport does not find itself in a work stoppage, there are some big questions to ponder while the hot stove preheats.
From New York Times ● Nov. 5, 2021
She preheats her jars in there, like Wynne, and then she puts them back in, once they’ve been filled with jam, for another 15 minutes to further sterilize them and their contents.
From Washington Post ● Aug. 26, 2021
He preheats the beaker and plunger with some of the boiling water before adding the grounds and water.
From Salon ● Jul. 21, 2021
I bought a pizza stone, preheated it thoroughly, and figured out the ideal cooking time for my oven.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 7, 2026
She heads to the kitchen to throw a fresh batch into the oven she assumes is preheated only to find . . . a cold appliance.
From Salon ● Nov. 22, 2023
Once the oven is preheated and the water is boiling, remove the bagels from the fridge.
From Seattle Times ● Nov. 21, 2023
The oven I had preheated for my stuffing had not, in fact, heated.
From New York Times ● Nov. 18, 2023
He cut the fat off them, breaded them, preheated the oven, and put them in a glass pan.
From "The River" by Gary Paulsen
He purported to speak with Ghislaine Maxwell, Luigi Mangione and Sean “Diddy” Combs before revealing that the key to making prison rice pudding is preheating the toilet to 350 degrees.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 2, 2025
After a couple of days of gradual preheating, the piece inside the 6-by-6-foot box atop a brick foundation is fired to 2,340 degrees in a 14-hour cycle.
From Seattle Times ● May 8, 2024
ARE YOU ONE of those impatient souls who already skips preheating the oven?
From Seattle Times ● Apr. 2, 2024
However, the benefits of preheating for reducing particle mass emissions were only observed in one gasoline vehicle, where these emissions decreased by 72%, and in one diesel vehicle, where the reduction was 24%.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 12, 2023
The can was the preheating type with enclosed spoon and the warm odor of baked beans filled the room.
From "I, Robot" by Isaac Asimov
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.
