: an oven, furnace, or heated enclosure used for processing a substance by burning, firing, or drying
kiln transitive verb

Did you know?

The word kiln was kindled in Old English as a bundle of c-y-l-n. Unlike many words that descend from Old English, however, kiln is not ultimately Germanic in origin but was borrowed from Latin culina, meaning "kitchen," an ancestor of the English word culinary, which has been a menu option in English since the 17th century. An ingredient in culina is coquere, meaning "to cook" in Latin.

Examples of kiln in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web The pottery is gorgeous and sustainable, fired in electric kilns instead of gas. John Metcalfe, The Mercury News, 15 Jan. 2024 Once saturated with the CO2, the material returns to the kiln, where the carbon is removed before the process repeats. Nadia Lopez, Fortune, 9 Nov. 2023 The school also has an art room that comes with a full kiln for pottery projects. The Indianapolis Star, 31 Jan. 2024 This, of course, is where the gang burns the Sanderson sisters alive using a pottery kiln. EW.com, 20 Oct. 2023 There are many kinds of historical stone features – waste piles, cairns, scatters, lines, kilns, gravestones, cobbles, patios and more. Robert M. Thorson, Discover Magazine, 9 Dec. 2023 That heat could then be used to, say, heat a limestone kiln to make cement. TIME, 24 Oct. 2023 Sublime plans to develop large amounts of cement without using traditional methods, which involve depositing a mix of limestone and clay into giant kilns and using fossil fuels to heat them up to about 2,500 degrees. David Abel, BostonGlobe.com, 14 June 2023 Concrete is responsible for around 8 percent of all global carbon dioxide emissions, because of the enormous energy required to fire its component parts in a kiln and the gases given off during the resultant chemical reaction. Peter Guest, WIRED, 3 Jan. 2024

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'kiln.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

Etymology

Middle English kilne, from Old English cyln, from Latin culina kitchen, from coquere to cook — more at cook

First Known Use

before the 12th century, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of kiln was before the 12th century

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Dictionary Entries Near kiln

Cite this Entry

“Kiln.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/kiln. Accessed 18 Mar. 2024.

Kids Definition

kiln

noun
: an oven or furnace for hardening, burning, or drying something
brick kilns
kiln verb

More from Merriam-Webster on kiln

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