kitchen
kit·chen/ˈkɪt͡ʃ(ə)n/noun, verb
kitchen is spelled K-I-T-C-H-E-N: 7 letters and 2 syllables (kit·chen). It appears 45 times per million words in written English, the 2,253rd most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, kitchen means “A room or area for preparing food” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of kitchen is kitchens.
How many letters and syllables are in kitchen?
| Letters | 7: K-I-T-C-H-E-N |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2: kit·chen |
| In writing | 45 times per million words; the 2,253rd most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Same letters |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How common is kitchen?
Kitchen appears 45 times per million words in written English, the 2,253rd most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce kitchen?
- UK /ˈkɪt͡ʃ(ɪ)n/
- US /ˈkɪt͡ʃ(ə)n/
- /ˈkit͡ʃin/
Kitchen has 2 syllables, split kit·chen in writing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-uk-kitchen.ogg, En-us-kitchen.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with kitchen?
No other word on PlainSpell ends in the same sounds as kitchen (/ɪtʃn/).
Spelled with the same letters in another order: thicken, chetnik.
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of kitchen
- kitchens plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- kitchening participle, present
- kitchened participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does kitchen mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
A room or area for preparing food.
We cook in the kitchen.
- 2
Cuisine; style of cooking.
- 3
The nape of a person's hairline, often referring to its uncombed or "nappy" look.
- 4
The percussion section of an orchestra.
- 5
datedA utensil for roasting meat.
- 6
A domesticated or uneducated form of a language.
- 7
slangA public gaming room in a casino.
- 8
obsoleteAnything eaten as a relish with bread, potatoes, etc.; a condiment.
verb
- 1
To do kitchen work; to prepare food.
- 2
To embellish a basic food; to season, add condiments, etc.
- 3
To embellish; to dress up.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Kitchen in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense room:
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does kitchen come from?
From Middle English kichene, kichen, from Old English cyċen, cyċene, from Proto-West Germanic *kukinā, a borrowing from Late Latin cocīna, from earlier coquīna (“kitchen; cuisine”), from coquō (“to cook”), from Proto-Indo-European *pekʷ- (“to cook, become ripe”). In other languages, the cognate term often refers both to the room and the type of cooking. In English, the distinction is generally made via the etymological twins kitchen (“room”) (Latin via Germanic) and cuisine (“type of cooking”) (Latin via French).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).