Cookbook:Tablespoon

| Equipment

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

"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 seldom-used imperial (post-1824 British) tablespoon is defined to be approximately 17.8 ml, which is about 20% larger than the Queen Anne tablespoon used in the USA. Thus, the Queen Anne (USA) tablespoon is 5/6 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.