stove

¹ American  

[stohv] / stoʊv /

noun

1. a portable or fixed apparatus that furnishes heat for warmth, cooking, etc., commonly using coal, oil, gas, wood, or electricity as a source of power.

2. a heated chamber or box for some special purpose, as a drying room or a kiln for firing pottery.

---

verb (used with object)

stoved, stoving

1. to treat with or subject to heat, as in a stove.

stove ² American  

[stohv] / stoʊv /

verb

1. a simple past tense and past participle of stave.

---

stove ¹ British  

/ stəʊv /

noun

1. another word for cooker

2. any heating apparatus, such as a kiln

---

verb

1. to process (ceramics, metalwork, etc) by heating in a stove

2. to stew (meat, vegetables, etc)

stove ² British  

/ stəʊv /

verb

1. a past tense and past participle of stave

---

Etymology

Origin of stove

1425–75; (noun) late Middle English: sweat bath, heated room, probably < Middle Dutch, Middle Low German, cognate with Old English stofa, stofu heated room for bathing, Old High German stuba ( German Stube room; bierstube ), Old Norse stofa; early Germanic borrowing < Vulgar Latin *extupa, *extūpa (> French étuve sweat room of a bath; stew ¹ ), noun derivative of *extūpāre, *extūfāre to fill with vapor, equivalent to Latin ex- ex- ¹ + Vulgar Latin *-tūfāre < Greek tȳ́phein to raise smoke, smoke, akin to tŷphos fever ( typhus ); alternatively explained as a native Germanic base, borrowed into Romance ( izba ); (v.) late Middle English stoven to subject to hot-air bath, derivative of the noun

Example Sentences

Sitting around a wood stove and drinking cups of coffee and tea, the residents reflected on the upheavals that had become a regular feature of their lives.

From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 7, 2026

"The roof was like a stove," she said.

From Barron's • Mar. 24, 2026

Stacy comes to find tremendous solace in making one’s coffee over a wood-burning stove instead of waiting in line at the local café.

From Salon • Mar. 23, 2026

"It had a wood stove and no running water and a tin roof, rusted. It was a funky little shack."

From BBC • Mar. 17, 2026

From the cook stove where she was fixing our breakfast, Mama smiled and said, “Knowing how desperate you are to get the planting done, I’d say it was going to rain.”

From "Summer of the Monkeys" by Wilson Rawls

Related Words

• boiler
• cooker
• heater
• kiln
• microwave
• oven