What does "bake" mean?
The act of cooking food by baking.
Bake
/beɪk/ noun, verb, slang
noun, verb, slang ·Common ·High school level
Meaning at a glance
- Primary sense: The act of cooking food by baking.
- Grammar: bake is listed as noun, verb, slang.
- Nearest alternatives: air-dry, anhydrate, barbecue, baste.
- Useful contrasts: barbeque, broil, fries.
- Usage evidence: I took a cooking class last spring and learned to bake bread.
How to use "bake"
- Start with the primary definition, then check the part of speech before placing the word in a sentence.
- Compare nearby synonyms to make sure "bake" carries the exact meaning, tone, and strength you need.
- Use the example sentence as a context check. If your sentence uses the word differently, confirm that the grammar still fits.
Meaning check
- Does the word fit the sentence's grammar?
- Does it match the intended tone rather than only the dictionary definition?
- Would a simpler synonym be clearer for the reader?
- Is there enough surrounding context to prevent ambiguity?
Source and review context
This entry combines structured lexical data with WordToolSet review checks. Definitions, examples, synonyms, and usage notes may come from different source tables, so the page is designed to show evidence from more than one angle before you rely on "bake" in a final draft.
If a word has several senses, prefer the sense that matches your sentence's grammar and surrounding context. A correct definition can still be the wrong choice when the sentence needs a different register, emphasis, or level of specificity.
Before you rely on this definition
Read the first definition as a starting point, then check the example, synonyms, and part of speech before treating "bake" as the right word for your sentence.
If your draft is formal, technical, persuasive, or sensitive, compare "bake" with a nearby alternative so the final choice matches both meaning and reader expectation.
Compare nearby meanings
- Use synonyms when you need a softer, stronger, simpler, or more specific word.
- Use antonyms to check the boundary of the meaning and avoid accidental contrast.
- Use the example sentence to confirm the word behaves naturally in context.
- Keep the original wording when a replacement adds complexity without improving precision.
Definition decision workflow
1. Identify the role
Check whether "bake" is acting as noun, verb, slang in your sentence. A definition is only useful when the grammar matches the way the word is being used.
2. Test the nearest option
Compare it with "air-dry" and other nearby choices to see whether the sentence needs a softer, stronger, or more familiar word.
3. Confirm with context
Use the example sentence below as an evidence check, then read your own sentence out loud to catch tone or rhythm problems.
Review note: Definition pages are checked for source coverage, sentence evidence, synonym support, and editorial insight before they are treated as approval-ready pages. If the evidence is too thin, the page remains available to users but is kept out of the approval-facing indexed inventory.
Final meaning check
Before publishing a sentence with "bake", ask whether the word helps the reader understand the idea faster. A precise word should reduce confusion, not simply make the sentence look more polished.
When the definition, synonym evidence, and example context point in the same direction, the word is usually a safer choice. When they conflict, revise the sentence or choose a clearer alternative.
Definitions
Noun
- 1 The act of cooking food by baking.
"Taking one of her cakes or a tray of biscuits from the oven always gives her satisfaction and a moment of pride; that is, of course, unless there happens to be some little element that doesn't please her with the bake."
- 2 Any of various baked dishes resembling casserole. Australia, New-Zealand, UK, especially
"A fish bake made with cod chunks, sliced parboiled potatoes, […]"
- 3 Any food item that is baked, such as a pastry.
"Baking parchment should not be confused with greaseproof paper — the former has a non-stick coating and will ensure that your bakes lift out of the tin or off the baking sheets easily, the latter will have the opposite effect!"
- 4 A social event at which food (such as seafood) is baked, or at which baked food is served. US
"The central episode is the temporary burial of the novitiate; a shallow pit is excavated, and in this a fire is made, as for a fish bake; […]"
- 5 A small, flat (or ball-shaped) cake of dough eaten mainly in Barbados, similar in appearance and ingredients to a pancake but fried (or sometimes roasted). Barbados, UK, US, sometimes
"For quotations using this term, see Citations:bake."
Verb
- 1 To cook (something) in an oven (for someone). ditransitive, intransitive, transitive
"I baked a delicious cherry pie."
- 2 cook and make edible by putting in a hot oven wordnet
- 3 To be cooked in an oven. intransitive
"The cake baked at 350°F."
- 4 heat by a natural force wordnet
- 5 To be warmed to drying and hardening. intransitive
"The clay baked in the sun."
Show 9 more definitions
- 6 prepare with dry heat in an oven wordnet
- 7 To dry by heat. transitive
"They baked the electrical parts lightly to remove moisture."
- 8 be very hot, due to hot weather or exposure to the sun wordnet
- 9 To be hot. figuratively, intransitive
"It is baking in the greenhouse."
- 10 To cause to be hot. figuratively, transitive
"My dad told me about his days in the Navy: He'd agreed to be a guinea pig in exchange for a shorter enlistment. […] They baked him in the sun."
- 11 To smoke marijuana. intransitive, slang
- 12 To harden by cold. obsolete, transitive
"The earth […] is baked with frost."
- 13 To fix (lighting, reflections, etc.) as part of the texture of an object to improve rendering performance. transitive
- 14 To incorporate into something greater. figuratively
"Disagreements between pilots' unions are baked into the merger cake."
Example
"I took a cooking class last spring and learned to bake bread."
Common questions
What is a synonym for "bake"?
Common synonyms include: air-dry, anhydrate, barbecue, baste, batch, be in heat.
How do you use "bake" in a sentence?
I took a cooking class last spring and learned to bake bread.
How do you pronounce "bake"?
Pronounced /beɪk/.
Etymology
From Middle English baken, from Old English bacan (“to bake”), from Proto-West Germanic *bakan, from Proto-Germanic *bakaną (“to bake”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰeh₃g- (“to roast, bake”). Cognate with West Frisian bakke (“to bake”), Dutch bakken (“to bake”), Low German backen (“to bake”), German backen (“to bake”), Norwegian Bokmål bake (“to bake”), Danish bage (“to bake”), Swedish baka (“to bake”), Ancient Greek φώγω (phṓgō, “roast”, verb).