noun
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a spoon, larger than a dessertspoon, used for serving food, etc
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Also called: tablespoonful. the amount contained in such a spoon
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a unit of capacity used in cooking, medicine, etc, equal to half a fluid ounce or three teaspoons
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of tablespoon
Compare meaning
How does tablespoon compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:
Explanation
A tablespoon is a unit of measurement in cooking, and it's also the name of the utensil you use to measure this amount. If you love spicy foods, you might pour a couple of tablespoons of Tabasco sauce on your scrambled eggs. You can also call a serving spoon a tablespoon, and this is the word's original meaning, from "spoon for table service," first used around 1760. In some places, a large spoon used for eating is more likely to be called a tablespoon, while other people use the word specifically to mean a measuring spoon that holds an amount equal to three teaspoons, or 1/2 a fluid ounce.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Add one tablespoon of herbs to about 8 to 12 ounces of hot water.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 11, 2026
There’s just a single tablespoon of sugar, enough to let the butter taste like itself.
From Salon ● Nov. 12, 2025
Remove from heat and let cool slightly before spooning over your cake, just a tablespoon at a time, smoothing with the back of a spoon.
From Salon ● Apr. 3, 2025
Like all MOFs, the material features a porous, crystalline array of metal ions and organic linkers, with an internal area equivalent to about six football fields per tablespoon -- a huge area for adsorbing gases.
From Science Daily ● Nov. 14, 2024
She passed me a doll-sized cup with a tablespoon of mud-colored liquid in it, and I looked longingly at the foamy mugs Katrina and Sophie carried to our table.
From "Educated" by Tara Westover
My mother was making chocolate chip cookies, handing us tablespoons of dough to taste, and somehow we had all ended up in the kitchen again.
From Salon ● Aug. 31, 2026
For every can of beans, start with about 3 to 4 tablespoons of olive oil and 1 to 2 teaspoons of lemon juice or vinegar, plus your aromatics, herbs and spices.
From Salon ● Jun. 16, 2026
As long as oranges are in season, take advantage of their perky perfume by stirring a few tablespoons of zest into the mix.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 8, 2026
Twenty grams of high-fat cream is about 1.4 tablespoons of heavy whipping cream.
From Science Daily ● Dec. 21, 2025
Once it cooled I managed to scrape out a few tablespoons.
From "The Omnivore's Dilemma" by Michael Pollan
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
