What does cooker mean?
A cooker is an appliance designed for cooking food, and its exact meaning depends heavily on where you are. In British English, 'cooker' is the standard household term for the full kitchen cooking unit — typically a combination of hob or hotplates on top and an oven below — equivalent to what North Americans would call a 'stove' or 'range'. In American usage, 'cooker' rarely stands alone; instead it appears in compound names for single-purpose electric appliances such as the rice cooker, slow cooker, and pressure cooker. The word derives from 'cook', tracing back through Middle English to the Latin 'coquus', meaning a cook. It is a neutral, practical word found in everyday domestic speech, product advertising, and recipes alike. Its regional split makes it a useful illustration of how the same word can denote different things in different English-speaking countries, and compounds like 'pressure cooker' have even entered figurative use to describe tense, high-pressure situations.
nounA cooker is an appliance used for cooking food, typically comprising a stove with hotplates or burners and an oven; in British English this is the everyday term for a kitchen stove. In American English, the word more commonly appears in compound forms such as 'rice cooker' or 'slow cooker', referring to specialized electric cooking appliances.
- A large kitchen appliance for cooking, typically combining a hob or hotplates with an oven (chiefly British English).
- A specialized electric appliance that cooks a specific type of food, such as a rice cooker, slow cooker, or pressure cooker.
- (Historical/rare) A person who cooks; one who prepares food.
"She put the casserole into the cooker and left it to simmer for two hours."
"The new gas cooker was installed just in time for Sunday lunch."
"He set the slow cooker before leaving for work so dinner would be ready by evening."
Regular plural; commonly used in retail and manufacturing contexts.
"The showroom had a dozen cookers on display."
In Britain the whole kitchen range is simply 'the cooker' — but ask for one in America and you'll likely be handed a rice cooker.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of cooker
'Cooker' is formed from 'cook', which entered English via Old French from Latin 'coquus' (a cook), ultimately related to the verb 'coquere' ('to cook'). The agent-noun suffix '-er' turned the act of cooking into both a person who cooks and, later, a device that cooks, with appliance senses becoming widespread in the 19th and 20th centuries as domestic technology spread. Cognates include Old French 'cuisinier' and modern French 'cuisiner'.
How cooker is actually used
In British English, 'cooker' is the standard everyday word for what Americans call a 'stove' or 'range'; the terms are largely interchangeable in meaning but regionally distinct in usage. Compound forms like 'pressure cooker' and 'slow cooker' are common on both sides of the Atlantic. The word is informal-neutral in register and carries no particular connotation.
Easily confused with cooker
A cookie is a small baked sweet treat, whereas a cooker is an appliance for cooking food.