Join free

oven

English · Thesaurus

AI In plain words

Writing a short explanation…

Written by a house AI from the entry below, in your language. The entry itself is the source.

oven

  • /ˈʌ.vn̩/ US, UK
  • /ˈʌv.ən/ US, UK

Rhymes with -ʌvən

Where it comes from

From Middle English oven, from Old English ofn (“oven”), from Proto-West Germanic *ofn (“oven”), from Proto-Germanic *uhnaz, *uhwnaz (“oven”). Cognate with West Frisian ûne (“oven”), Dutch oven (“oven”), Low German Aven (“oven”), German Ofen (“oven”), Danish and Norwegian Bokmål ovn (“oven”), Faroese ovnur (“oven”), Icelandic ofn (“oven”), Norwegian Nynorsk omn (“oven”), Swedish ugn (“oven”), Finnish uuni (“oven”), Gothic 𐌰𐌿𐌷𐌽𐍃 (auhns, “oven”)), probably from a Proto-Indo-European *aukʷ- (“cooking pot”), *Hukʷ-, *ukʷnos (compare Sanskrit उखा (ukhā, “boiler, cauldron”), Albanian anë (“vessel, cooker”), Latin aulla, olla (“pot, jar”), Ancient Greek ἰπνός (ipnós, “oven, furnace”)).

The modern pronunciation shows a sound change in which Middle English /ɔv/ is changed to /uv/; compare the phonetic development of Coventry and shovel.

noun ovens

  1. A chamber used for baking or heating. Baby I'm hot just like an oven / I need some lovin'
  2. colloquial, figuratively A very hot place. The ballroom that evening was an absolute oven. I probably perspired more dancing then during the afternoon ballgame.

verb ovens · ovening · ovened

  1. colloquial, informal, transitive To cook in an oven. I'm gonna oven the pie for about 30 minutes, mate.

Thesaurus

Closest in meaning: cooking, baked, baking, baker, cooker, greenhouse, stove, fur, furnace, kiln, smelter, drawer, appliance, heater, fire, mitt

Translations

Every language

noun chamber used for baking or heating

Españolhorno
한국어오븐 obeun
日本語オーブン ōbun
中文烤爐 /烤炉 kǎolú, 爐 /炉 lú, 烘爐 /烘炉 hōnglú
हिन्दीभट्ठी bhaṭṭhī, चूल्हा cūlhā, तन्दूर tandūr, तनूर tanūr
Portuguêsforno
Françaisfour
DeutschBackofen, Backrohr, Ofen
Italianoforno
Ελληνικάφούρνος foúrnos
Românăcuptor, sobă
Русскийпечь pečʹ, пе́чка péčka, духо́вка duxóvka
Tiếng Việtlò, lò nướng
العربيةفُرْن furn, تَنُّور tannūr
עבריתתַּנּוּר tanúr

noun a very hot place

Españolhorno

Talk about this word

Cite this
MLA

"oven." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/oven. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

oven. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/oven

Chicago

"oven." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/oven.

BibTeX
@misc{oven_2026,
  title = {oven},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/oven},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}