teaspoon

American  

[tee-spoon] / ˈtiˌspun /

noun

teaspoons plural

1. a small spoon generally used to stir tea, coffee, etc.

2. a teaspoonful.

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teaspoon British  

/ ˈtiːˌspuːn /

noun

1. a small spoon used for stirring tea, eating certain desserts, etc

2. Also called: teaspoonful.  the amount contained in such a spoon

3. a unit of capacity used in cooking, medicine, etc, equal to about one fluid dram

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• teaspoons
  plural

Etymology

Origin of teaspoon

First recorded in 1680–90; tea + spoon

Compare meaning

How does teaspoon compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:

• teaspoon vs. tablespoon

Explanation

In cooking, a teaspoon is a small unit of measurement, as well as the name of the utensil you use to measure it. If you like your tea slightly sweet, you might add just a teaspoon of sugar to it. You can also call a small spoon used for stirring coffee or tea a teaspoon. When you're making a recipe, it's good to know that a teaspoon is equal to one-third of a tablespoon, or five milliliters. The word teaspoon dates from the 1680s.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

teaspoon teaspoons

The researchers worked with a small amount of Bennu material, about the size of a teaspoon.

From Science Daily ● Feb. 12, 2026

He warned that just "a teaspoon of faeces from an infected bird could kill a million turkeys".

From BBC ● Nov. 23, 2025

To maintain the nonstick qualities, rub about a ¼ teaspoon of oil over a clean, warm pan after cooking from time to time.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 24, 2025

But as an observer once described it, we’ve been managing rather than solving the crisis and essentially bailing a leaky boat with a teaspoon.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 10, 2025

Laleh always took her tea with three cubes of sugar and one cube of ice, and she always clanged the teaspoon against the sides of her glass teacup as she stirred.

From "Darius the Great Is Not Okay" by Adib Khorram

The tiny bag containing Oscar's personalised treatment held 100 million CAR T-cells in just three teaspoons of liquid, and it took only a few minutes to infuse into his bloodstream.

From BBC ● Jan. 13, 2026

The new pyramid says that one meal should contain no more than 10 grams of added sugars, or about 2 teaspoons.

From MarketWatch ● Jan. 7, 2026

It’s no wonder the experience can feel oddly flat or stop-start, punctuated by small panics over whether it was two teaspoons or two tablespoons of red pepper flakes.

From Salon ● Dec. 20, 2025

If they are over a year old, you can give them two teaspoons of honey up to six times, but do not delay going to the hospital to get honey.

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 29, 2024

I sat by Dad’s bed, dripping teaspoons of water into his mouth with a medical dropper and feeding him pureed vegetables as if he were a toddler.

From "Educated" by Tara Westover