kitchenette

UK/ˌkɪt͡ʃəˈnɛt/US/ˌkɪt͡ʃəˈnɛt/

nounB2Very rare — outside the 30,000 commonest English words, so you will meet it in writing rather than in speech — kitchen sits at #665neutral

Other forms: kitchenettes

A kitchenette is a tiny cooking corner rather than a proper room. A sink, two rings, a small fridge underneath, all along one wall.

The -ette on the end means small, the same ending that turns a cigar into a cigarette and a kitchen into this. You meet the word in property adverts and hotel listings, where a studio flat with a kitchenette is being distinguished from one with nowhere to cook at all. It is a practical, unromantic word, and it usually signals a compromise: enough to make breakfast, not enough to cook a dinner for six.

Definitions of kitchenette

1nounkitchenetteA very small area fitted for cooking, rather than a separate kitchen.B2
“The room came with a kitchenette and a shared bathroom.”

Where it comes from

Proto-Indo-European
*pekʷ- — to cook, become ripe
Latin
cocīna
Proto-West Germanic
*kukinā
Old English
cyċen
Middle English
kichene
English
kitchen
English, today
kitchenette

Built from

coquīna · Latin — kitchen; cuisine
coquō · Latin — to cook
kitchen · English — room

From kitchen + -ette. kitchen comes from Middle English kichene, kichen, from Old English cyċen, cyċene, from Proto-West Germanic kukinā, a borrowing from Latin cocīna, from earlier coquīna (“kitchen; cuisine”), from coquō (“to cook”), from Proto-Indo-European pekʷ- (“to cook, become ripe”). In other languages, the cognate term often refers both to the room and the type of cooking. In English, the distinction is generally made via the etymological twins kitchen (“room”) (Latin via Germanic) and a doublet of cuisine (Latin via French -).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in A Man Called Ove

First appears in chapter 14 of A Man Called Ove.

Practise this word

kitchenette in the wild

Families live in attached or single-family homes with traditional amenities, usually including a private kitchenette.
Cohousing
The Center will function off-grid with a kitchenette, toilet (which incinerate waste into ash), and two bunks for sleeping.
Horse Island (Connecticut)
Some minor modifications, including a small office and kitchenette have been added in the southwest corner upstairs.
The Dalles Carnegie Library
A large lounge, kitchenette, choir and meeting facilities occupy the first floor.
Stone Chapel
New York City's building code defines a kitchenette as a kitchen of less than 7.4 m2 of floor space.
Kitchenette

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

Related words

the cyċen family

chicken kitchen chick

kitchenette — used too rare to measure · point at the bar for the others

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