kilns

Meanings

1. 1nounpluraltechnical

   Large ovens used to bake clay objects or dry materials like bricks, wood or grain at very high temperatures.

   Grammar: Plural of kiln: several kilns. One oven is a kiln.

   Patterns

   • kilns for something
   • fire something in kilns

   The potter fires her bowls in two electric kilns.

   Old brick kilns still stand beside the canal.

   Wood is dried in kilns before being sold as flooring.

2. 2nounpluraltechnical

   Special furnaces used in industry to heat limestone and make lime or cement.

   Grammar: Plural; in this industrial sense the kilns often run day and night.

   Patterns

   • rotary kilns
   • cement kilns

   Cement kilns burn at extremely high temperatures.

   Workers watch the temperature of the kilns day and night.

   The factory has three rotary kilns for making lime.

Common combinations

brick kilns

Brick kilns once lined the river valley.

pottery kilns

The village is known for its pottery kilns.

load the kilns

The workers load the kilns each morning.

fire in kilns

The tiles are fired in kilns overnight.

electric kilns

Electric kilns are easier for beginners to use than gas ones.

Synonyms and how they differ

ovens

Ovens is a general word for heated spaces for cooking, but kilns reach far higher temperatures for hardening or drying materials.

furnaces

Furnaces are used to melt metals and generate heat, while kilns are for baking and drying.

stoves

Stoves are household heaters or cookers and would not hold clay or bricks.

Word family

kiln noun

singular form

kiln-dried adjective

dried in a kiln, as with timber

kilning noun

the process of drying or firing in a kiln

kiln verb

to bake or dry in a kiln (rare)

Commonly confused: kilns or kills?

Practice

Make it your own

Write a sentence using “kilns”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.

Explore more words