bake
Americanverb (used with object)
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to cook by dry heat in an oven or on heated metal or stones.
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to harden by heat.
to bake pottery in a kiln.
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to dry by, or subject to heat.
The sun baked the land.
verb (used without object)
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to bake bread, a casserole, etc.
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to become baked.
The cake will bake in about half an hour.
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to be subjected to heat.
The lizard baked on the hot rocks.
verb phrase
verb
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(tr) to cook by dry heat in or as if in an oven
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(intr) to cook bread, pastry, etc, in an oven
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to make or become hardened by heat
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informal (intr) to be extremely hot, as in the heat of the sun
noun
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a party at which the main dish is baked
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a batch of things baked at one time
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a kind of biscuit
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a small flat fried cake
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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bakesimple
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bakessimple
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have bakedperfect
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has bakedperfect
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am bakingprogressive
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are bakingprogressive
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is bakingprogressive
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have been bakingperfect progressive
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has been bakingperfect progressive
Past
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bakedsimple
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had bakedperfect
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was bakingprogressive
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were bakingprogressive
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had been bakingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of bake
First recorded before 1000; Middle English baken, Old English bacan; cognate with Old High German bahhan, Old Norse baka; akin to Dutch bakken, German backen, Greek phṓgein “to roast”; from Proto-Indo-European extended root bhēg-, bhōg- “to warm, roast”
Explanation
To bake something is to cook it in a hot oven. When you bake a batch of blueberry muffins, your whole house smells delicious. Whether you bake some cookies for dessert, a casserole to take to a potluck supper, or bake a clay pot in a kiln, you cook with a relatively slow, dry heat. You can also use the word bake figuratively: "Are you going to move into the shade, or are you just going to bake in the sun all day?" The Old English word was bacan, from a Germanic root.
Vocabulary lists containing bake
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The Teesside school raised money through bake sales and fundraising events to help support the rebuilding of classrooms at Shree Garma School.
From BBC • Jun. 17, 2026
As the planet continues to bake, there are also increasingly fewer ways of going about staging a World Cup.
From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 6, 2026
The one time she tried to bake lemon squares for an event at her son’s school, she watched as a woman took a bite and spat it out.
From The Wall Street Journal • May 25, 2026
Mix it together, portion it out, and bake until set.
From Salon • May 22, 2026
Felix spotted Benji working at the bake sale, wearing a cotton-candy-pink apron.
From "Millionaires for the Month" by Stacey McAnulty
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
