Word.ws English Dictionary

baking

/ˈbeɪkɪŋ(ɡ)/

baking is the present participle and gerund of bake.

Adjective

baking (not comparable)

  1. That bakes.
    • baking bread; baking clay; baking dish
  2. (figuratively) Of a person, an object, or the weather: very hot; boiling, broiling, roasting.
    • I’m baking—could you open the window?
    • The car was baking after having been parked in the sun the whole afternoon.

Noun

baking (usually uncountable, plural bakings)

  1. (usually) An action in which something is baked.
    • I’m going to do some baking this afternoon.
    • Upon these terms, after working hard all day for her mistress, she began her midnight bakings, assisted by her two oldest children.1861, Harriet Jacobs (Linda Brent), Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl
  2. (usually) The way in which something is baked.
    • How often have we risen in the morning, after spending the night in this manner, with a feeling akin to that which we fancy would come from being knocked in the head with a sack of meal, then gently stewed, and all out of pure fraternal regard to supply any deficiencies in our original bakings.1871, Ledyard Bill, Minnesota; Its Character and Climate
    • Clissold’s work of cooking has fallen on Hooper and Lashly, and it is satisfactory to find that the various dishes and bread bakings maintain their excellence.1913, Captain R. F. Scott, Scott’s Last Expedition Volume I
  3. (countable, usually) The production of a batch of baked product.

Meaning of bake

Verb

bake (third-person singular simple present bakes, present participle baking, simple past baked or (dialectal) book, past participle baked or (dialectal) book or (dialectal) baken)

  1. (ditransitive, intransitive, transitive) To cook (something) in an oven (for someone).
    • I baked a delicious cherry pie.
  2. (intransitive) To be cooked in an oven.
    • The cake baked at 350°F.
  3. (intransitive) To regularly prepare baked goods.
    • In some cultures, it is expected that a proper housewife should bake.
  4. (figuratively, intransitive, slang) To smoke marijuana.
    • (Let's bake tonight.)
  5. (figuratively) To incorporate into something greater.
    • Disagreements between pilots' unions are baked into the merger cake.2014, United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. Subcommittee on Aviation Operations, Safety, and Security, Airline Industry Consolidation: Hearing, page 36
  6. (intransitive) To be warmed for drying and hardening.
    • The clay baked in the sun.
    Synonyms:
    fire

See all 16 meanings of bake

Forms of baking

pluralbakings

Origin of baking

From Middle English bakynge; equivalent to bake + -ing.

Words formed from baking

Phrases with baking

6 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with baking

2 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about baking

What does baking mean?
Baking means that bakes.
What is baking the present participle and gerund of?
Baking is the present participle and gerund of bake.
What part of speech is baking?
Baking can be an adjective or a noun.
How do you pronounce baking?
Baking is pronounced /ˈbeɪkɪŋ(ɡ)/.

Words near baking in the dictionary

  1. Bakhtiyari
  2. Bakhtiyaris
  3. Baki
  4. Bakiad
  5. bakin'
  6. baking
  7. baking beans
  8. baking board
  9. baking boards
  10. baking chocolate
  11. baking chocolates

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: baking (page history and authors); bake (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-baking.wav, LL-Q1860 (eng)-Wodencafe-baking.wav.

Cite this entry: “baking.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/baking. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.