Word.ws English Dictionary

kitchen

Syllables: kit·chen/ˈkɪt͡ʃ(ɪ)n//ˈkɪt͡ʃ(ə)n/

kitchen noun: a room or area for preparing food.

kitchen: a room or area for preparing food
Image: Samantha Appleton / United states of America, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

kitchen (plural kitchens)

  1. A room or area for preparing food.
    • We cook in the kitchen.
    • Everything a living animal could do to destroy and to desecrate bed and walls had been done. […] A canister of flour from the kitchen had been thrown at the looking-glass and lay like trampled snow over the remains of a decent blue suit with the lining ripped out which lay on top of the ruin of a...1963, Margery Allingham, “Foreword”, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC
  2. (broadly) Cuisine; style of cooking.
    • I had been trained with the rigidity and discipline of the French kitchen, and now I was embracing American informality.2011, Jacques Pépin, Essential Pépin: More Than 700 All-Time Favorites from My Life in Food, →ISBN
    • My palate passionately lies in the savory kitchen with its salty fats and infernal flavors of chilies and spices.2011, Daniel Orr, Paradise Kitchen: Caribbean Cooking with Chef Daniel Orr, →ISBN, page 221
  3. (chiefly African-American Vernacular) The nape of a person's hairline, often referring to its uncombed or "nappy" look.
  4. The percussion section of an orchestra.
    • For obvious reasons the percussion is normally arranged along the back of the platform, whether centrally or to one side, and sometimes also in two tiers, the heavy, noisier instruments behind, and the pitched, agile instruments such as vibraphone, marimba, etc. in front. An outstanding exception...1981, Norman Del Mar, Anatomy of the Orchestra
  5. (dated) A utensil for roasting meat.
    • There are two modes of roasting: One is to use a tin kitchen before an open fire, and the other, and more common way, is to use a hot oven.1897, The Warm Springs Receipt-book, page 70
  6. (attributive) A domesticated or uneducated form of a language.
    • Sir Henry and Umbopo sat conversing in a mixture of broken English and kitchen Zulu, in low voices, but earnestly enough.1885, H. Rider Haggard, King Solomon's Mines
  7. (slang) A public gaming room in a casino.
    • Having done what was required to gain admittance to the "kitchen," as the public rooms are termed, as well as to the more exclusive "Salle Privée" […]1925, William Rutherford Hayes Trowbridge, In the sun with a passport, page 31
    • But on this June evening when Bond walked through the 'kitchen' into the salle privée, it was with a sensation of confidence and cheerful anticipation that he changed a million francs into plaques of fifty mille and took a seat […]1953, Ian Fleming, Casino Royale
  8. (obsolete) Anything eaten as a relish with bread, potatoes, etc.; a condiment.
    • “They,” said he, meaning the collops, “are such as I gave his Royal Highness in this very house; bating the lemon juice, for at that time we were glad to get the meat and never fashed for kitchen. Indeed, there were mair dragoons than lemons in my country in the year forty-six.”1886 May 1 – July 31, Robert Louis Stevenson, Kidnapped, being Memoirs of the Adventures of David Balfour in the Year 1751: […], London; Paris: Cassell & Company, published 1886, →OCLC
    • Snouk but and snouk ben, / I find the smell of an earthly man; / Be he living, or be he dead, / His heart shall be kitchen to my bread.1890, Joseph Jacobs, “The Red Ettin”, in English Fairy Tales, page 136
  9. The region of a billiard table between the head rail and the head string.

Verb

kitchen (third-person singular simple present kitchens, present participle kitchening, simple past and past participle kitchened)

  1. To do kitchen work; to prepare food.
    • A dress scarcely suited to woodland kitchening was defended by an apron borrowed from the maid.1842, Caroline Matilda Kirkland, Forest Life - Volume 2, page 52
    • "...May I ? " added the speaker, and forthwith took his answer from his master's smile ; "may I respectfully see what the old one has kitchened for you when I was not there ? "1899, Egerton Castle -, The Light of Scarthey: A Romance, page 10
  2. To embellish a basic food; to season, add condiments, etc.
    • I have found it so, for whenever I saw the meal and potatoes running low, I spared them, and kitchened them all I could, and never was run out of them till the new came in.1817, Mrs. Edgworth, Tales of Real Life, Or, Scenes in Ireland
    • I "kitchened" my loaf, as they say in Scotland, with a pennyworth of butter, and occasionally with lettuce or a few radishes in their season ; and the beverage with which I regaled myself, after my meals, was a glass of water from the nearest pump.1851, John Mackay Wilson, Tales of the Borders and of Scotland
  3. (broadly) To embellish; to dress up.
    • His Maker has not so endowed him as to lay him under the necessity of kitchening, so to speak, a slender share of talent, and, by rigid economy, make it go as far as possible.1830, The Imperial Magazine
    • But as in his novels and other work there is a 'kitchening' of the material, a tentativeness.2003, Patrick Kavanagh, Antoinette Quinn, A Poet's Country: Selected Prose, →ISBN, page 211

Proper noun capitalized: Kitchen

Kitchen (countable and uncountable, plural Kitchens)

  1. (countable) A surname.
    • Steve Kitchen was a fast-talking, enthusiastic entrepreneur who had developed a couple of successful Atari video games.2004, Andy Hertzfeld, Revolution in The Valley, page 268
  2. An unincorporated community in Jackson County, Ohio, United States
  3. An unincorporated community in Logan County, West Virginia, United States
  4. (abbreviation, ellipsis) Ellipsis of Kitchen Creek
  5. (abbreviation, ellipsis) Ellipsis of Kitchen Run

kitchen meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

kitchen in Hindi

room
रसोईघर rasoīghar, रसोई rasoī

kitchen in Tamil

சமையலறை

kitchen in Marathi

स्वयंपाकघर

kitchen in Urdu

room
باوَرْچی خانَہ bāvarcī xāna, مَطْبَخ matbax, مَطْبَخ خانَہ matbax xāna, رَسوئی rasoī, رَسوئی خانَہ rasoī xāna, آش پَز خانَہ āś paz xāna
More languagesFewer languages
kitchen in Bengali
রান্নাঘর rannaghor, পাকঘর pakoghor
kitchen in Telugu
వంటగది vaṇṭagadi, వంటిల్లు vaṇṭillu
kitchen in Malayalam
അടുക്കള aṭukkaḷa
kitchen in Kannada
ಅಡುಗೆ ಮನೆ, ಅಡುಗೆಮನೆ, ಅಡುಗೆ ಮನೆಗೆ
kitchen in Punjabi
ਰਸੋਈ
kitchen in Gujarati
રસોડું rasoḍũ, પાકશાળા pākśāḷā, રસોઈઘર rasoīghar, રાંધણિયું rā̃dhṇiyũ
kitchen in Odia
ରନ୍ଧାଘର randhāghara
kitchen in Sanskrit
रसवती rasavatī
kitchen in Assamese
পাকঘৰ pakghor, ৰান্ধনিঘৰ randhonighor, আখল akhol
kitchen in Nepali
भान्साघर, भान्सा, भान्सामा
kitchen in Pashto
جلنانۍ jalnanay, اشپزخانه ašpazxāná, آشپزخانه āšpazxāná
kitchen in Tagalog
kusina, lutuan, silid-lutuan
kitchen in Arabic
مَطْبَخ maṭbaḵ
kitchen in Malay
dapur
kitchen in Indonesian
dapur
kitchen in Thai
ครัว kruua
kitchen in Vietnamese
nhà bếp, bếp
kitchen in Myanmar
စားဖိုဆောင် ca:hpuihcaung, မီးဖိုချောင် mi:hpuihkyaung

Examples of kitchen in a sentence

  • I always leave the stuff piled up, piled up in the sink / But you will always find him in the kitchen at parties1980, Jona Lewie, Keef Trouble, “You'll Always Find Me in the Kitchen at Parties”, performed by Jona Lewie:
  • Kline wrote that, according to various recent surveys, the young Israeli-born generation generally preferred a Mediterranean diet and dishes from the “Oriental” kitchen.2015, Yael Raviv, Falafel Nation: Cuisine and the Making of National Identity in Israel, →ISBN:
  • Instinctively they moved toward community canning, community baking, community kitchening on the grand scale to release energy for other war exigencies.1920, Suffragist - Volumes 8-9, page 239:
  • From somewhere through the series of connecting rooms she smelled food, the stabbing odor of onions cooking, a distantly familiar spice, heard the clatter of women kitchening.1979, Barbara Ninde Byfield, A parcel of their fortunes, →ISBN, page 21:

All 40 example sentences with kitchen

Forms of kitchen

Noun
pluralkitchens
alternative form (archaic)kitchin
Verb
third-person singular presentkitchens
present participlekitchening
past participlekitchened
pastkitchened
Proper noun
pluralKitchens

Plural of kitchen: kitchens

Origin of kitchen

From Middle English kichene, kichen, from Old English cyċen, cyċene, from Proto-West Germanic *kukinā, a borrowing from Late Latin cocīna, from earlier coquīna (“kitchen; cuisine”), from coquō (“to cook”), from Proto-Indo-European *pekʷ- (“to cook, become ripe”). In other languages, the cognate term often refers both to the room and the type of cooking. In English, the distinction is generally made via the etymological twins kitchen (“room”) (Latin via Germanic) and cuisine (“type of cooking”) (Latin via French).

Words formed from kitchen

Phrases with kitchen

48 more phrasesFewer phrases

Questions about kitchen

What does kitchen mean?
Kitchen means a room or area for preparing food.
What is kitchen in Hindi?
Kitchen in Hindi is रसोईघर (rasoīghar), रसोई (rasoī). See Kitchen meaning in Hindi.
How do you use kitchen in a sentence?
I always leave the stuff piled up, piled up in the sink / But you will always find him in the kitchen at parties
What part of speech is kitchen?
Kitchen can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce kitchen?
Kitchen is pronounced /ˈkɪt͡ʃ(ɪ)n/ (UK).
What is the plural of kitchen?
The plural of kitchen is kitchens.

Words near kitchen in the dictionary

  1. Kitchawan
  2. Kitchawong
  3. Kitchawonk
  4. Kitchell
  5. Kitchells
  6. kitchen
  7. kitchen bitch
  8. kitchen bitches
  9. kitchen bouquet
  10. kitchen boy
  11. kitchen boys

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: kitchen (page history and authors); Kitchen (page history and authors); kitchen (Tamil, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); kitchen (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); kitchen (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); kitchen (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); kitchen (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-uk-kitchen.ogg, En-us-kitchen.ogg.

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