verb
bake
bayk
verb
1
To cook food using dry heat in an oven.
"She baked a batch of cookies for the school fair."
"The bread needs to bake for about forty minutes."
2
To harden or dry something using heat.
"The desert sun baked the clay ground until it cracked."
noun
1
A social event where food is baked or served, or a baked dish itself.
"The neighborhood held a fish bake down by the shore."
How to Use Bake
Learner’s notesIn plain EnglishTo cook something in an oven using dry heat, or more broadly, to harden or dry something with heat.
Common pairings
bake a cake
bake bread
bake in the sun
Word Forms
baked past tense, book past tense, baken past tense, bakes plural, bakes singular
Study it as flashcards or scroll it in Flow — saved to your collection.
Test yourself on “bake”
A quick quiz — meaning, synonyms & usage
→
Fill the Gap
Can you complete this real example?
She _____ a batch of cookies for the school fair.
Etymology
From Old English bacan ("to bake"), from a Proto-Germanic root shared with Dutch bakken and German backen.