US Cups to Centiliters (cup to cL)
1 US cup equals 23.65882365 centiliters exactly.
How to convert US cups to centiliters
To convert US cups to centiliters, multiply the number of US cups by 23.65882365. This factor is exact. To go the other way, multiply centiliters by 0.04226752838 (rounded).
centiliters = US cups × 23.65882365
Example: 10 US cups = 236.5882365 centiliters.
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
US Cup (cup)
One sixteenth of a US gallon, 236.588 mL (8 US fluid ounces). The standard US recipe cup.
Cups began as household drinking vessels, not scientific units, which is why they remain the messiest measures in the kitchen. The US customary cup was defined by slicing up the gallon: half a pint, or eight US fluid ounces, about 236.6 milliliters. Unlike the larger units, nobody ever fixed it to a physical vessel, so it exists only as a fraction of the gallon.
The customary cup is not the only American cup. For nutrition labels, US regulation defines a cup as exactly 240 milliliters, a rounder figure that sits slightly above the customary size. Packaged foods therefore list a serving in the legal cup while a measuring cup from the hardware store follows the customary definition. The gap is 3.4 milliliters, which hardly matters for soup but can matter in baking. Cup measures also hide the weight of dry ingredients, since a cup of sifted flour and a cup of packed flour differ substantially, which is why much of the world prefers grams.
1 US cup = 0.2365882365 liters (exactly).
Sources: Wikipedia: Cup (unit); NIST SP 811, Appendix B.8: conversion factors for volume; 21 CFR 101.9: nutrition labeling household measures
Centiliter (cL)
One hundredth of a liter (10 mL). Used on drink labels across Europe.
Centi- means one hundredth, so a centiliter is 0.01 liter, which is 10 milliliters or 10 cubic centimeters. Among the liter's smaller multiples it is the one that suits glassware: it indicates the capacity of drinking glasses and small bottles, and shot-sized servings of alcohol are often 3 cL.
The unit sits between the milliliter, used for medicine and small packaging, and the deciliter, which is ten times larger at 10 cL. The figure used here is exactly 0.01 liter. Because 1 cL is 10 cubic centimeters, a 33 cL container holds 330 mL, and three such measures of 3 cL come to 9 cL. Ten centiliters make one deciliter.
1 centiliter = 0.01 liters (exactly).
Sources: Wikipedia: Litre; Wikipedia: Metric prefix
Related conversions
- Centiliters to US cups (reverse)
- US cups to liters
- US cups to milliliters
- US cups to US gallons
- US cups to US fluid ounces
- US cups to cubic meters
- US cups to cubic centimeters
- US cups to US quarts
- US cups to US pints
- US cups to US tablespoons
- US cups to US teaspoons
- US cups to metric cups
- US cups to metric tablespoons
- Liters to centiliters
- Milliliters to centiliters
- US gallons to centiliters
- US fluid ounces to centiliters
See all volume units.