Word Pronunciation & Dictionary

oven

/ˈʌ.vn̩/

Word Rarity Uncommon

Frequency: Zipf frequency 4.05 in modern English

Syllables
oven
IPA
/ˈʌ.vn̩/
7
Scrabble Score
4
Letters
2
Syllables
4
Unique Chars

Meaning

noun

A chamber used for baking or heating.

noun

A very hot place.

Colloquial

verb

To cook in an oven.

Colloquial; Informal; Transitive verb

Example Sentences

Etymology

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.

Origin

Word Breakdown

Regional Pronunciation

  • American English: /ˈʌ.vn̩/
  • British English: /ˈʌ.vn̩/

Usage

Inflected Forms

Derived Forms

Phrases

Rhymes With

Questions

How do you pronounce oven?
The recorded pronunciation is /ˈʌ.vn̩/.
What does oven mean?
A chamber used for baking or heating.
Where does oven come from?
It is traced to Middle English.

How to pronounce oven

  1. Open the pronunciation page — Open the Speakur entry for “oven”.
  2. Read the phonetic spelling — Read the IPA spelling (/ˈʌ.vn̩/) so you know which sounds to aim for.
  3. Play the audio — Click Play to hear reference audio for “oven”.
  4. Repeat and practice — Say “oven” aloud, matching stress and vowels until it feels natural.