cooking with gas
"cooking-with-gas" is a 14-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“cooking with gas” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a phrase. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 16
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Functioning particularly effectively; achieving something substantial.
Corpus desk
Index EN-cooking-with-gas · cooking with gas · English
cooking with gas · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 16 letters
- VOW-5 5 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "C" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | cooking with gas |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Phrase |
| Letters | 16 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “cooking with gas” in English
Rare enough to double-check
cooking with gas is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as aphrase. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for cooking with gas, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.
Etymologically, the entry records: To cook with natural gas fuel has been occurring since at least the 19th century when the petroleum industry came into being and new products and markets were developed. The idiomatic phrase entered the popular lexicon as part of an advertising slogan in la… The correct English form is cooking with gas, spelled C-O-O-K-I-N-G- -W-I-T-H- -G-A-S.
Definition
- 1Functioning particularly effectively; achieving something substantial.
- 2Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see cook, with, gas.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how cooking with gas appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
She said, 'What are you doing? Tell me, I want to know.' The blind man said, 'We're drawing a cathedral. Me and him are working on it. Press hard,' he said to me. 'That's right. That's good,' he said. 'Sure. You got it, bub. I can tell. You didn't think you could. But you can, can't you? You're cooking with gas now. You know what I'm saying? We're really…
With the updated software, I was really cooking with gas. I got the project done in half the time.
Etymology
To cook with natural gas fuel has been occurring since at least the 19th century when the petroleum industry came into being and new products and markets were developed. The idiomatic phrase entered the popular lexicon as part of an advertising slogan in late 1930s or early 1940s, for American Gas Association. The slogan "Now you're cooking with gas!" was coined by Deke Houlgate, an employee of AGA, who worked with Bob Hope to insert the phrase into his comedy routines as subtle product placement. The initial idea was to compete with the increasing popularity of electric stoves in the 1930s. However by 1940 it came to have a broader idiomatic usage and figurative meaning because of the way it was used by Bob Hope, Bing Crosby, Jack Benny and even a Daffy Duck cartoon, eclipsing its original intent as advertising. The slogan was repeated throughout the 1941-1942 radio season by many radio stars. Also used by jazz musicians to praise a performance.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.