# stove

> English word · Noun · IPA /stəʊv/ · frequency rank #11,128

## Definitions
1. A heater, a closed apparatus to burn fuel for the warming of a room.
2. A device for heating food, (UK) a cooker.
3. A stovetop, with hotplates.
4. A hothouse (heated greenhouse).
5. A house or room artificially warmed or heated.

## Etymology
From Middle Dutch stove and/or Middle Low German stove (compare Dutch stoof (“foot stove”), German Low German Stuve, Stuuv), both from Proto-West Germanic *stubu (“heated room, bathroom, stove”), further origin uncertain. The Germanic words are very old, and are the source of the Slavic and Romance terms. It is often speculated that the Germanic terms were borrowed from Vulgar Latin *extūfa, *extūfāre (“to heat with steam”), from Latin ex- + *tūfus (“hot vapor”), from Ancient Greek τῦφος (tûphos, “fever”).
Cognates
Cognate with Old English stofa (“bathroom, bathhouse”), stufbæþ (“hot-air bath”), Old High German stuba (“heated room, bathroom”) (whence German Stube (“living room, room, parlour”), Hungarian szoba (“room”)), Old Norse stofa (whence Danish stue (“living room, room”), Faroese stova (“living room, house”), Icelandic stofa (“living room”), Norwegian Bokmål stue (“cottage, cabin, living room”), Norwegian Nynorsk stove (“cottage, cabin, living room”), Swedish stuga (“cottage, cabin, living room”)).
Doublet of stufa.

## Easily confused with
- **stow** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/stove-vs-stow)
- **style** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/stove-vs-style)
- **swore** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/stove-vs-swore)
- **Stowe** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/stove-vs-stowe)
- **suave** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/stove-vs-suave)
- **stroke** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/stove-vs-stroke)
- **strive** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/stove-vs-strive)
- **strode** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/stove-vs-strode)
- **stowed** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/stove-vs-stowed)
- **strobe** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/stove-vs-strobe)
- **strove** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/stove-vs-strove)
- **stover** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/stove-vs-stover)
- **soe** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/soe-vs-stove)
- **sov** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/sov-vs-stove)
- **some** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/some-vs-stove)
- **stop** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/stop-vs-stove)
- **save** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/save-vs-stove)
- **sole** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/sole-vs-stove)
- **shoe** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/shoe-vs-stove)
- **sore** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/sore-vs-stove)

## Common misspellings (7)
`sotve`, `sstove`, `stoev`, `stovve`, `sttove`, `stvoe`, `tsove`

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/stove