Milliliters to Shō (mL to shō)

1 milliliter equals 0.0005543523532 shō (rounded).

1 milliliter = 0.0005543523532 shō

How to convert milliliters to shō

To convert milliliters to shō, multiply the number of milliliters by 0.0005543523532. The factor is rounded to 10 significant digits. To go the other way, multiply shō by 1,803.906837 (rounded).

shō = milliliters × 0.0005543523532

Example: 10 milliliters = 0.005543523532 shō.

Pints, quarts, gallons and fluid ounces differ between the US and the UK. Units are labeled 'US' or 'imperial' to avoid confusion.

About these units

Milliliter (mL)

Metric (SI)Current unit

One thousandth of a liter, or exactly 1 cubic centimeter. Used for medicine, cooking and small containers.

Milliliters inherit everything from the liter, since the prefix simply means one thousandth. Because the liter is a cubic decimeter, a milliliter works out to exactly one cubic centimeter, a coincidence the metric system built in on purpose so that volume, length and mass interlock. One milliliter of water has a mass of about one gram, so a dosing syringe, a kitchen scale and a measuring jug can all be checked against one another.

Today milliliters dominate wherever small amounts must be measured precisely: medicine, flavorings, perfume, shampoo and the fine print on drink labels. Spelling is a mild regional split, with uppercase mL preferred in the United States, Canada and Australia and lowercase ml common in the UK and Europe. For scale, a US teaspoon is just under 5 mL, a US tablespoon is about 14.8 mL, and the US nutrition-label cup is exactly 240 mL, so one such cup is 240 of these tiny units.

1 milliliter = 0.001 liters (exactly).

Sources: Wikipedia: Litre; NIST SP 811, Appendix B.8: conversion factors for volume; 21 CFR 101.9: nutrition labeling household measures

Shō (shō)

JapaneseTraditional unit (still used in some regions)

Exactly 2401/1331 liters, about 1.8039 L. Sake bottles still come in 1.8 L 'isshō-bin' sizes.

The character for shō depicts a ladle holding grain, and the measure began as roughly the amount held in two cupped hands, about 200 mL. Over the centuries the unit grew to about ten times that, and by the Edo period the standard box (masu) was the one used in Kyoto.

In 1669 the shogunate abolished the older Edo masu and ordered the slightly larger new Kyoto masu to be used everywhere. Guilds in Edo and Kyoto policed its size for roughly three centuries. The 1891 Weights and Measures Act then fixed the shō at 2401/1331 L, about 1.804 L, derived from the 64,827 cubic bu of that box.

Japanese sake is still sold in 1.8 L bottles known as isshō-bin, or one-shō bottles. Trade use of the shō was banned in 1959. Note that in China the shō is defined as exactly one litre, so the same word names a different size there.

1 shō = 1.803906837 liters (approximately).

Sources: Wikipedia: Japanese units of measurement; Japanese Wikipedia: Sho

Related conversions

See all volume units.