Cookbook:Tablespoon

A plastic tablespoon and teaspoon.

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A tablespoon is a unit of measure equal to 1/16 cup, 3 US teaspoons, or 1/2 US fluid ounce in the USA. It is either approximately or (in some countries) exactly equal to 15 ml. In the UK, 1 UK tablespoon (traditionally ¹⁄₂ imperial fluid ounce or 4 imperial fluid drachms) is equal to 4 UK teaspoons.

"Tablespoon" may be abbreviated as T (note: uppercase letter), tbl, tbs or tbsp.

A typical large dinner spoon is about 1 tablespoon in size. It is not often the case, but some might consider the dinner spoon as the one used towards a normal bowl of soup or cereal. At any rate, it is not to be confused with a regular spoon for the amount of 1 tablespoon is a bit larger than a regular one.

The post-1824 British imperial tablespoon, being approximately 14·21 mL, is about 4·2% larger than the Queen Anne tablespoon used in the USA. Thus, the Queen Anne (USA) tablespoon is 96% the size of the British one. The Australian (metric) tablespoon is even bigger, at 20 mL, while the teaspoon remains at 5 ml to give 4 teaspoons per tablespoon instead of the 3 teaspoons used elsewhere.