What is a Stove?

To begin, what is the difference between calling something a stove, or an oven, or a kitchen range? These terms have often been used interchangeably or together in different forms, but there are some key differences that separate them.

The root of the word stove comes from various forms of heat or heating dating back to early English iterations from around 1485; whether it be steam, a hot air bath, or a form of a furnace. Nowadays, how we use the word stove is related to a fueled device for cooking and/or heating. Stoves were a key precursor to what is the kitchen range and are not always used for cooking, or at least not solely used for cooking. Nevertheless, they are still the term that is most easily interchanged with range and can describe essentially the same appliance; an oven with a stovetop of some sort. Ovens, though generally seen as a subsection of appliances like ranges or stoves, can be and have been their own separate unit meant for cooking, heating, drying, or baking food. A kitchen range, as mentioned, is the amalgamation of the cooking top and oven in one appliance, inexplicably defined almost the same as a stove, if not for its purpose to be specifically for cooking always. All of these terms are found interchangeably used in many advertisements, but now kitchen range the term used more in the appliance industry.