Cup (unit) - Wikipedia

Cooking measure of volume Not to be confused with drinking cups, or "cup" serving sizes, which may not necessarily correspond with this unit. Cup is a measurement used in bra sizing, and is unrelated.

cup
A simple plastic measuring cup, capable of holding the volume one metric cup with a scale for US fluid ounces
General information
Unit system	US customary units
Unit of	Volume
Symbol	cup
Conversions (US)
1 US cup in ...	... is equal to ...
SI units	236.588 mL

The cup is a cooking measure of volume, commonly associated with cooking and serving sizes. In the US, it is traditionally equal to one-half US pint (236.6 ml). Because actual drinking cups may differ greatly from the size of this unit, standard measuring cups may be used, with a metric cup being 250 millilitres.

United States

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Customary cup

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In the United States, the customary cup is half of a liquid pint.

1 US customary cup	=	1⁄16	US customary gallon
=	1⁄4	US customary quart
=	1⁄2	US customary pint
=	8	US customary fluid ounces
=	16	US customary tablespoons
=	48	US customary teaspoons
=	236.5882365	milliliters exactly
=	15.7725491	international tablespoons
=	11.829411825	Australian tablespoons
≈	8 1⁄3	imperial fluid ounces

Legal cup

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The cup currently used in the United States for nutrition labelling is defined in United States law as 240 ml.[1][2][3]

1 US "legal" cup	=	240	millilitres
=	16	international tablespoons
=	12	Australian tablespoons
=	8	US nutritional fluid ounces (30 ml each)
≈	8.12	US customary fluid ounces
≈	8.45	imperial fluid ounces

Conversion table to US legal cup

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The following information is describing that how to measure US legal cup in different ways.[4]

1 cubic meter	=	4166.6667	US legal cup
1 litre	=	4.16667	US legal cup
1 US legal tablespoon	=	0.0625	US legal cup
1 US legal teaspoon	=	0.020833333	US legal cup
1 US gallon	=	15.772549	US legal cup
1 US pint	=	1.9715686	US legal cup
1 US cup	=	0.98578432	US legal cup
1 US fluid ounce	=	0.12322304	US legal cup
1 US tablespoon	=	0.06161152	US legal cup
1 US teaspoon	=	0.020537173	US legal cup
1 imperial gallon	=	18.942	US legal cup
1 imperial pint	=	2.36776	US legal cup
1 imperial fluid ounce	=	0.118388	US legal cup
1 imperial tablespoon	=	0.0739924	US legal cup
1 imperial teaspoon	=	0.0246641	US legal cup
1 US cubic foot	=	117.987	US legal cup
1 US cubic inch	=	0.0682794	US legal cup

Coffee cup

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A "cup" of coffee in the US is usually 4 fluid ounces (118 ml), brewed using 5 fluid ounces (148 ml) of water. Coffee carafes used with drip coffee makers, e.g. Black and Decker models, have markings for both water and brewed coffee as the carafe is also used for measuring water prior to brewing.[5] A 12-cup carafe, for example, has markings for 4, 6, 8, 10, and 12 cups of water or coffee, which correspond to 20, 30, 40, 50, and 60 US fluid ounces (0.59, 0.89, 1.18, 1.48, and 1.77 litres) of water or 16, 24, 32, 40, and 48 US fluid ounces (0.47, 0.71, 0.95, 1.18, and 1.42 litres) of brewed coffee respectively, the difference being the volume absorbed by the coffee grounds and lost to evaporation during brewing.

Commonwealth of Nations

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Metric cup

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Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and some other members of the Commonwealth of Nations, being former British colonies that have since metricated, employ a "metric cup" of 250 millilitres.[6] Although derived from the metric system, it is not an SI unit.[7]

1 cup	=	250	millilitres
=	162⁄3	international tablespoons (15 ml each)
=	12.5	Australian tablespoons (20 ml each)
=	25	dessertspoons (10 ml each)
≈	8.80	imperial fluid ounces
≈	8.45	US customary fluid ounces

A "coffee cup" is 1.5 dL (i.e. 150 millilitres or 5.07 US customary fluid ounces), and is occasionally used in recipes; in older recipes, cup may mean "coffee cup". It is also used in the US to specify coffeemaker sizes (what can be referred to as a Tasse à café). A "12-cup" US coffeemaker makes 57.6 US customary fluid ounces of coffee, which is equal to 6.8 metric cups of coffee.

Canadian cup

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Canada now usually employs the metric cup of 250 ml, but its conventional cup was somewhat smaller than both American and imperial units.[8]

1 Canadian cup = 8 imperial fluid ounces = ⁠1/20⁠ imperial gallon = 227.3045 ml

1 Canadian tablespoon = 1⁄2 imperial fluid ounce (14.2065 ml)

1 Canadian teaspoon = 1⁄6 imperial fluid ounce (4.7355 ml)

United Kingdom

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This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources in this section. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (March 2024) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

In the United Kingdom the standard cup was set[by whom?] at 10 imperial fluid ounces, or half an imperial pint. The cup was rarely used in practice, as historically most kitchens tended to be equipped with scales and ingredients were measured by weight, rather than volume.[9] A related measure, the gill (5 fluid ounces, or half an imperial cup), was commonly used in older cookbooks for liquids, and may still be used (in fractions of 1/4, 1/5 and 1/6) for spirits.

1 imperial cup	=	10	imperial fluid ounces
=	16	imperial tablespoons
=	48	imperial teaspoons
≈	284.131	millilitres
≈	9.6076	US customary fluid ounces

International

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Similar units in other languages and cultures are sometimes translated "cup", usually with various values around 1⁄5 to 1⁄4 of a litre.

Latin American cup

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In Latin America, the amount of a "cup" (Spanish: taza) varies from country to country, using a cup of 200 ml, 250 ml, and the US legal or customary amount.

Japanese cup

[edit] See also: Gō

The traditional Japanese unit equated with a "cup" size is the gō, legally equated with ⁠2401/13310⁠ litres (≈180.4 ml) in 1891, and is still used for reckoning amounts of rice and sake. The Japanese later defined a "cup" as 200 ml.

1 Japanese cup	=	200	millilitres
≈	7.04	imperial fluid ounces
≈	6.76	US customary fluid ounces

Russian cup

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The traditional Russian measurement system included two cup sizes, one of which, the "charka" (cup proper), was usually used for alcoholic drinks and measured 123 ml (4.2 US fl oz; 4.3 imp fl oz), while another, "stakan" ("glass") was twice as big at 246 ml (8.3 US fl oz; 8.7 imp fl oz) and used for other liquids.

Since metrication, the charka was informally redefined as 100 ml, acquiring a new name of "stopka" (related to the traditional Russian measurement unit "stopa"[citation needed]), while there are currently two widely used glass sizes of 250 and 200 ml.

Dutch cup

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In The Netherlands, traditionally a "cup" (Dutch: kopje) amounts to 150 ml. However, in modern recipes the US legal cup of 240 ml is more commonly used.

Dry measure

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In Europe, recipes normally weigh non-liquid ingredients in grams rather than measuring volume. For example, where an American recipe might specify "1 cup of sugar and 2 cups of milk", a European recipe might specify "200 g sugar and 500 ml of milk". A precise conversion between the two measures takes into account the density of the ingredients, and some recipes specify both weight and volume to facilitate this conversion. Many European measuring cups have markings that indicate the weight of common ingredients for a given volume.

Volume to mass conversions for some common cooking ingredients

Ingredient	Densityg/ml[a]	Metric cup		Imperial cup		US customary cup
		g	oz	g	oz	g	oz
water[10]	1[b]	249–250	8.8	283–284	10	236.5882	8.3[c]
granulated sugar	0.8[13]	200	7.0	230	8.0	190	6.7
wheat flour	0.5–0.6[13]	120–150	4.4–5.3	140–170	5.0–6.0	120–140	4.2–5.0
table salt	1.2[13]	300	10.6	340	12.0	280	10.0

See also

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• Cooking weights and measures

Notes

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1. ^ One gram per millilitre is very close to one avoirdupois ounce per fluid ounce: 1 g/ml ≈ 1.002 av oz/imp fl oz This is not a numerical coincidence, but comes from the original definition of the kilogram as the mass of one litre of water, and the imperial gallon as the volume occupied by ten avoirdupois pounds of water. The slight difference is due to water at 4 °C (39 °F) being used for the kilogram, and at 62 °F (17 °C) for the imperial gallon. The US fluid ounce is slightly larger. 1 g/ml ≈ 1.043 av oz/US fl oz.
2. ^ The density of water ranges from about 0.96 to 1.00 g/ml dependent on temperature and pressure. The table above assumes a temperature range 0–30 °C (32–86 °F). The variation is too small to make any difference in cooking.[11][12]
3. ^ Since an imperial cup of water weighs approximately 10 avoirdupois ounces and five imperial cups are approximately equal to six US cups, one US cup of water weighs approximately 81⁄3 avoirdupois ounces.

References

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1. ^ (21 CFR 101.9 (b) (5) (viii)
2. ^ US Government Printing Office—Electronic Code of Federal Regulations Archived 2009-08-13 at the Wayback Machine
3. ^ U.S. Food and Drug Administration—Guidelines for Determining Metric Equivalents of Household Measures
4. ^ "US Legal Cup Measures". 16 November 2020. Archived from the original on 19 November 2020. Retrieved 17 November 2020.
5. ^ "Black and Decker Replacement Carafe". Archived from the original on 2016-12-31. Retrieved 2016-12-30.
6. ^ "Standard Australian Cooking Measurements". Retrieved 2014-09-24.
7. ^ "coherent units". BIPM. Retrieved 2014-05-26.
8. ^ "How Many Tablespoons in a Cup - Easy Conversions". First Health Mag. 2016-04-28. Retrieved 2016-05-08.
9. ^ Stobart, Tom (1981).The Cook's Encyclopedia, Harper & Row, p.524
10. ^ 1 g/ml is a good rough guide for water-based liquids such as milk (the density of milk is about 1.03–1.04 g/ml).
11. ^ Water density calculator
12. ^ Ma, Allen (2007). Elert, Glenn (ed.). "Density of water". The Physics Factbook. Retrieved 2018-07-06.
13. ^ a b c L. Fulton, E. Matthews, C. Davis: Average weight of a measured cup of various foods. Home Economics Research Report No. 41, Agricultural Research Service, United States Department of Agriculture, Washington, DC, 1977.

v t e Imperial units
Comparison with US customary system
Length	Twip Thousandth of an inch Barleycorn Inch Hand Link Foot Yard Fathom Rod Chain Gunter's chain Furlong Cable Mile Nautical mile League
Area	Square inch Square foot Square yard Perch Rood Acre Square mile
Volume	Derived Cubic inch Cubic foot Hoppus Cubic yard Cubic mile Tmcft Cooking Teaspoon Tablespoon Fluid ounce Cup Pint Quart Trade gallon Gallon Other Chaldron Minim Gill Fluid Scruple Fluid Drachm Peck Bushel Barrel Stuck Hogshead
Speed	Miles per hour
Mass	Grain Drachm Ounce Pound (mass) Stone Quarter Slug Long hundred Hundredweight Ship load Ton
Pressure	Ksi Pounds per square inch
Other units and measures	British thermal unit Degree Fahrenheit Rankine Foot-candle Foot-pound Foot-poundal Horsepower Horsepower-hour Kenning Pound (force) Pound-foot Poundal Span Spinning count
Related systems	Avoirdupois system English units Winchester Exchequer English Engineering units Foot–pound–second system (FPS) Twenty-foot equivalent unit

v t e United States customary units
Comparison with imperial unit system
Length	Thousandth of an inch Inch Hand Link Foot Yard Rod Chain Furlong Mile statute
Area	Square inch Square foot Square yard Acre Square mile
Volume	Derived Cubic inch Cubic foot Cubic yard Cubic mile Cooking Teaspoon Tablespoon Fluid ounce Cup Pint Quart Gallon Wood Board foot Cord Face cord Other Minim Gill Peck Bushel Barrel Acre-foot
Speed	Feet per second Miles per hour
Mass	Grain Dram Ounce Pound Hundredweight Ton Long Short
Force	Poundal Pound-force Kip
Pressure	Inch of mercury Pounds per square inch Kilopounds per square inch
Other units and measures	Bolt (cloth) British thermal unit Degree (angle) Fahrenheit Foot-candle Foot-lambert Foot-pound (energy) Horsepower Perm Pound-foot (torque) Spinning count Ton of refrigeration
Related systems	American wire gauge Avoirdupois system Body jewelry sizes English Engineering Units Foot–pound–second system of units