US Cups to Deciliters (cup to dL)
1 US cup equals 2.365882365 deciliters exactly.
How to convert US cups to deciliters
To convert US cups to deciliters, multiply the number of US cups by 2.365882365. This factor is exact. To go the other way, multiply deciliters by 0.4226752838 (rounded).
deciliters = US cups × 2.365882365
Example: 10 US cups = 23.65882365 deciliters.
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
Deciliter (dL)
One tenth of a liter (100 mL). Common in recipes in Scandinavia and Switzerland.
Cookbooks and menus in Croatia, Switzerland and the Scandinavian countries still measure with the deciliter, writing recipes in dL where an American cook would reach for a cup. A deciliter is one tenth of a liter, so it holds 100 cubic centimeters, or 100 milliliters, and it is a little under half of a US customary cup.
The prefix deci- means one tenth. In practice the unit suits a household portion between a spoon and a full liter. Ten deciliters make a liter, and ten centiliters make a deciliter, so conversion needs only a shifted decimal point. The figure used here is exactly 0.1 liter. For scale, five deciliters make half a liter, and one deciliter is 100 times a single milliliter.
1 deciliter = 0.1 liters (exactly).
Sources: Wikipedia: Litre; Wikipedia: Metric prefix
Related conversions
- Deciliters 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 deciliters
- Milliliters to deciliters
- US gallons to deciliters
- US fluid ounces to deciliters
See all volume units.