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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

cooking.

The process of preparing food by using heat.

7 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈkʊkɪŋ/Australia, Received-Pronunciation, US/ˈkɵkɪŋ/British, Southern, Standard/ˈkuːkɪŋ//ˈkʉkɪŋ/Northern-Ireland, Scotland

  1. The process of preparing food by using heat.

    uncountable

  2. An instance of preparing food by using heat.

    countable · rare

  3. The result of preparing food by using heat. One's ability to prepare food; cookery.

    uncountable
    My cooking isn't very good. I don't have any idea how to prepare a good meal.
    I missed my mum's cooking while I was at university.

  4. The result of preparing food by using heat. The style or genre of food preparation.

    uncountable
    What you've produced is a perfect example of authentic Chinese cooking.

  5. The cheapest available beer for sale in a public house.

    uncountable
Where this word comes from

From cook + -ing. The noun and adjective follow from the verb. The use of the word cooking to describe cheap bitter was popularized by the title character of the BBC sitcom Oh No, It’s Selwyn Froggitt (1974-1978). It refers to cooking sherry, a kind of sherry used in cooking but not suitable for drinking on its own.

adj/ˈkʊkɪŋ/Australia, Received-Pronunciation, US/ˈkɵkɪŋ/British, Southern, Standard/ˈkuːkɪŋ//ˈkʉkɪŋ/Northern-Ireland, Scotland

  1. Designed or suitable for culinary purposes.

    not-comparable
    I filled the cooking pot with water, and poured some cooking sherry into the skillet.
    This tree bears cooking apples.

  2. In progress, happening.

    informal · not-comparable
    The project took a few days to gain momentum, but by the end of the week, things were really cooking.

  3. Cheap; better suited for use in recipes than drinking.

    not-comparable
Where this word comes from

From cook + -ing. The noun and adjective follow from the verb. The use of the word cooking to describe cheap bitter was popularized by the title character of the BBC sitcom Oh No, It’s Selwyn Froggitt (1974-1978). It refers to cooking sherry, a kind of sherry used in cooking but not suitable for drinking on its own.

verb/ˈkʊkɪŋ/Australia, Received-Pronunciation, US/ˈkɵkɪŋ/British, Southern, Standard/ˈkuːkɪŋ//ˈkʉkɪŋ/Northern-Ireland, Scotland

  1. present participle and gerund of cook

    form-of · gerund · participle · present
Where this word comes from

From cook + -ing. The noun and adjective follow from the verb. The use of the word cooking to describe cheap bitter was popularized by the title character of the BBC sitcom Oh No, It’s Selwyn Froggitt (1974-1978). It refers to cooking sherry, a kind of sherry used in cooking but not suitable for drinking on its own.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.