While assisting a friend recently by emptying the clean dishes and pans from her kitchen dishwasher, I recalled an incident on a TV situation comedy where a young boy attempted to do some baking with no parental guidance. Turns out, the boy’s mother was storing in the oven, of all things, a blanket. The blanket ended up singed from the ordeal, but I digress. Emptying each item from the dishwasher, I held it up and my friend would shout where the item belonged in the kitchen such as bottom cabinet, right drawer and oven. That latter word proved to be too much for my friend as I literally placed a pot in the oven. Days later, I get a call from her asking what I had done with her cooking pot. Thus ensued a lengthy discussing of the definition of “oven.”
Oven
The definition of oven from the Merriam Webster dictionary is “a chamber used for baking, heating, or drying.” Based on the word chamber, it is safe to assume that an oven is something like a room (as-in bed chamber), which would have a door. We know that when it comes to baking, a door is involved to retain the heat in the chamber. An oven, therefore, is the place where you open a door to place a food item on a rack to surround it with heat. An oven may also include a microwave oven or a countertop toaster oven.
Stove
Pulling again from the Merriam Webster dictionary, the definition of stove is “a portable or fixed apparatus that burns fuel or uses electricity to provide heat (as for cooking or heating).” That definition would indicate that the whole kitchen appliance, from the burners on the top to the broiler on the bottom, is a stove. Not to complicate things, but for the people who use the term range, Merriam Webster’s dictionary defines that as “a cooking stove that has an oven and a flat top with burners or heating elements.” So a range and a stove are the same thing.
I rest my case, well sort of
Had my friend said stove or range as the storing place for the pot, well, I think I would have also placed it in the oven. As part of my defense, my mother stored an oversized electric skillet in the oven. Seemed like a good idea at the time since there was no kitchen cabinet storage space for it. Hold off on the lectures as I know now the dangers of storing anything in an oven. Plus, at my age, I don’t always think to look inside the oven before turning it on so I can adjust the shelves for what I’m about to bake, roast or cook. Perhaps that’s why we have two fire extinguishers in the kitchen.
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Do-It-Yourself Kitchen Remodel: Choosing Colors for Flooring, Cabinet and Countertop
Kitchen Cabinets Harbor Hidden Decorating Secrets
Kitchen Design: Types of Kitchen Sinks
Additional Source: “Stove and range buying guide,” CNET