Tablespoons

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A unit of measurement used in cooking equal to approximately 15 milliliters; often employed to quantify volume, especially for liquid ingredients; typically denoted by the abbreviation 'tbsp' in recipes and culinary contexts
2. A standardized measure for liquid or dry substances in cooking, equivalent to one half of a fluid ounce; frequently found in recipe instructions to ensure proper ingredient proportions; also used in nutritional labeling for serving sizes
3. A measurement of volume commonly used in cooking, representing a specific quantity roughly equal to 15 milliliters; serves as a practical tool for measuring both liquids and solids across various culinary applications

Etymology: "Tablespoons" is the plural of "tablespoon," a compound formed from "table" and "spoon." The first element comes from Middle English "table," meaning a flat-topped piece of furniture for eating or working on, and the second is the familiar "spoon," the same word that once meant a chip of wood before it came to mean an eating utensil. Put together, a tablespoon was the large spoon used at the dining table, as opposed to smaller spoons for other purposes. The cooking sense grew out of that name. Because the tablespoon was a sizeable, fairly standard utensil in ordinary households, it became a convenient informal unit for measuring ingredients, and recipes adopted it as a rough quantity. The modern measurement of about 15 milliliters is a standardized value, not the capacity of any particular spoon, which is why the unit and the utensil no longer match exactly.

Synonyms: tbsp