noun
Only when written 窯
A heated chamber or installation used for firing, baking, burning, or smelting. 窯 is especially natural for pottery kilns, charcoal kilns, and bread or pizza ovens; the English gloss 'stove' is best understood as an oven-like or furnace-like stove rather than an ordinary modern kitchen range.
この窯で陶器を焼く。
We fire pottery in this kiln.
新しい窯でパンを焼いた。
I baked bread in the new oven.
noun
traditional cooking stove; hearth; stove
Only when written 竈 / 竃
With 竈 or 竃, this refers to an old-style cooking stove or hearth. The reading かま for these spellings is limited and old-fashioned; modern learners will more often meet 竈 as かまど for this object.
昔の家では、竈に薪をくべて料理した。
In old houses, people cooked by feeding firewood into the hearth.
A homophone meaning a kettle, iron pot, or cauldron; 窯 is the kiln or furnace, while 釜 is the vessel.
The more common modern reading for a traditional cooking stove or hearth; かま with 竈 is much less common.
A furnace, hearth, or reactor in a broader technical or architectural sense; 窯 focuses more on a kiln or oven-like chamber used for firing or baking.
かま is a native Japanese word whose exact historical derivation is uncertain. The kanji 窯 is conventionally associated with kilns and furnaces, while 竈 and 竃 are associated with hearths or cooking stoves.