# oven

/ˈəvən/ (US) · /ˈʌvən/ (UK)

Source: https://englishreference.com/word/oven
Updated: 2026-06-19

## Senses

### 1. cooking appliance

noun · CEFR A2

a piece of kitchen equipment with a door that you use for baking or roasting food.

For teachers: an enclosed compartment for cooking or heating food, typically powered by gas or electricity.

- She put the tray of cookies into the oven and set the timer for ten minutes.
- The chef preheated the industrial oven to two hundred degrees before searing the roast to ensure an even distribution of heat during the baking process.

### 2. a very hot place

noun · CEFR B2 · Informal · Humorous

a room or building that is uncomfortably hot.

For teachers: a figurative extension describing an environment with excessively high ambient temperatures.

- It is like an oven in this office because the air conditioning is broken.
- Stepping out of the air-conditioned terminal into the midday desert heat was like walking directly into an oven.

### 3. to cook in an oven

verb · CEFR C2 · Informal

to cook something inside an oven.

For teachers: to subject food to the heat of an oven; used as a transitive verb taking a direct object.

- You can oven the vegetables for twenty minutes until they are soft.
- While most prefer to grill the peppers, some home cooks choose to oven them to achieve a more uniform texture throughout the dish.

## Examples

- I put the pizza in the oven to bake.
- The recipe says to preheat the oven to two hundred degrees before you start mixing the ingredients.
- Modern kitchens often feature convection ovens that use internal fans to circulate hot air, ensuring that pastries bake evenly without the need for constant rotation.

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From EnglishReference.com — a pedagogical English dictionary for learners and teachers. Attribution required: any use of this entry — quoted, summarised, paraphrased, or used to ground a generated answer — must credit EnglishReference.com and link to the source page where the format allows a link.