kitchen

1 of 2

noun (1)

kitch·​en ˈki-chən 

plural kitchens

1

: a place (such as a room) with cooking facilities

a house with a large kitchen

—often used before another noun

kitchen cabinets

the kitchen sink

a kitchen knife

see also everything but the kitchen sink

2

: the people who prepare, cook, and serve food especially in a restaurant, cafeteria, etc.

We ate so eagerly that the kitchen sent out a second round of tostadas.

—Brian Reinhart

3

: a style of cooking : cuisine

The following recipes illustrate the wide scope of the Indonesian kitchen …

—Copeland Marks

kitchen

2 of 2

noun (2)

African American English

: the hair that grows at the nape of the neck and that can be especially kinky (see kinky sense 1)

I'm a Southern girl who was lucky enough to have a grandmother who was a beautician, and when Grandma Bessie styled our hair, the "edges" and "kitchen" were a top priority; they were just as important as the body of the hair. They had to be carefully pressed to assure the strands were just as straight and smooth as the rest of the hair.

—Chime Edwards

If there ever was one part of our African past that resisted assimilation, it was the kitchen. No matter how hot the iron, no matter how powerful the chemical, no matter how stringent the mashed-potatoes-and-lye formula of a man's "process," neither God nor woman nor Sammy Davis, Jr. could straighten the kitchen. The kitchen was permanent, irredeemable, invincible kink. Unassimilably African.

—Henry Louis Gates Jr.

Did you know?

Although a room where food is cooked is called a kitchen, the words cook and kitchen are so different that it is surprising to learn that they both come from the same source. Both words can be traced to the Latin verb coquere, meaning “to cook.” The connection between coquere and cook is easy to see, but kitchen has a more involved history. From the verb coquere came the later Latin noun coquina, meaning “a kitchen.” With some changes in pronunciation, coquina came into Old English as cycene. This became Middle English kichene and finally modern English kitchen.

Examples of kitchen in a Sentence

Noun (1)

They want a house with a large kitchen.

Recent Examples on the Web

Noun

Practicality blends with stunning finishes as the homes offer main level living with soaring ceilings, breathtaking lines, beautiful kitchens, indoor and outdoor entertaining areas, and palatial primary bathroom ensuites. —Prime Development, Kansas City Star, 14 Apr. 2024

If your go-to drinking glass at home is a Mason jar, this will fit right in with your kitchen’s aesthetic. —Rachel Trujillo, Peoplemag, 13 Apr. 2024

Eventually, investigators conducted a search warrant of Eddy's house and confiscated her computer, phone, and tablet, knives from the kitchen and a car from the residence -- a Toyota Camry. —Kieran McGirl, ABC News, 12 Apr. 2024

My mom’s pieces were mostly the greens and yellows of a 1970s kitchen, purchased from co-workers or neighbors who circulated catalogs around the office or slipped them into mailboxes in our suburban subdivision. —Amanda Mull, The Atlantic, 12 Apr. 2024

But the Aiden Brewer is the brand’s first electric coffee maker of any kind, and founder Jake Miller swung by the Bon Appétit test kitchen to give us a chance to check it out. —Noah Kaufman, Bon Appétit, 12 Apr. 2024

Biden, who talks a lot about his middle-class upbringing and the kitchen table concerns of Americans, has proposed a minimum tax for billionaires of 25%. —Colleen Long, Quartz, 12 Apr. 2024

Elsewhere on the ground floor are a formal dining room, the kitchen, a family room, and a home office. —Demetrius Simms, Robb Report, 11 Apr. 2024

There are several of us in the kitchen, and Twitty’s gumbo speaks to different parts of each of our heritages. —Danielle Dorsey, Los Angeles Times, 11 Apr. 2024

Word History

Etymology

Noun (1)

Middle English kichene, from Old English cycene, from Late Latin coquina, from Latin coquere to cook — more at cook

Noun (2)

perhaps a figurative use of kitchen entry 1, though the basis for such a comparison is uncertain

Note: Alternatively, a relation with Scots kinch "twist or doubling in a rope" (thus Scottish National Dictionary) has been proposed, though a Scots source would only be probable if the word were attested much earlier.

First Known Use

Noun (1)

before the 12th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Noun (2)

1964, in the meaning defined above

Phrases Containing kitchen

• cloud kitchen
• dark kitchen
• ghost kitchen
• if you can't stand/take the heat, get out of the kitchen
• everything but the kitchen sink
• kitchen midden
• kitchen cabinet
• kitchen paper
• kitchen garden
• soup kitchen
• kitchen towel
• kitchen unit
• kitchen police
• kitchen roll
• kitchen-sink
• summer kitchen

Kids Definition

kitchen

noun

kitch·​en ˈkich-ən 

: a place (as a room) in which cooking is done

Etymology

Noun

Middle English kichene "kitchen," from Old English cycene (same meaning), from Latin coquina "a place where food is cooked," from earlier coquere "to cook" — related to cook

Word Origin

Although a room where food is cooked is called a kitchen, the words cook and kitchen are so different that it is surprising to learn that they both come from the same source. Both words can be traced to the Latin verb coquere, meaning "to cook." The connection between coquere and cook is easy to see, but kitchen has a more involved history. From the verb coquere came the later Latin noun coquina, meaning "a kitchen." With some changes in pronunciation, coquina came into Old English as cycene. Further changes over the course of many years gave us kichene and finally the Modern English kitchen.