US Tablespoons to US Teaspoons (tbsp to tsp)
1 US tablespoon equals 3 US teaspoons exactly.
How to convert US tablespoons to US teaspoons
To convert US tablespoons to US teaspoons, multiply the number of US tablespoons by 3. This factor is exact. To go the other way, multiply US teaspoons by 0.3333333333 (rounded).
US teaspoons = US tablespoons × 3
Example: 10 US tablespoons = 30 US teaspoons.
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 Tablespoon (tbsp)
Half a US fluid ounce (14.787 mL), equal to 3 teaspoons.
A tablespoon was once a spoon first and a unit second. Tablespoons entered place settings around 1700, first reserved for soup, and in the 18th century apothecaries used an unofficial tablespoon of four fluid drams, or half a fluid ounce. That is the origin of the modern US definition, which turns the spoon into precisely half a US fluid ounce.
The US tablespoon is therefore 14.7868 milliliters, equal to three US teaspoons, and sixteen of them make a US customary cup. It is often treated as 15 mL, and American nutrition labels define a tablespoon as exactly 15 mL, so the two figures sit within about 1.4 percent of each other. The regional difference that matters is Australia, which uses a larger 20 milliliter tablespoon, so a recipe asking for a tablespoon of oil or baking powder can go wrong when translated across the Pacific.
1 US tablespoon = 0.01478676478 liters (approximately).
Sources: Wikipedia: Tablespoon; NIST SP 811, Appendix B.8: conversion factors for volume; 21 CFR 101.9: nutrition labeling household measures
US Teaspoon (tsp)
One sixth of a US fluid ounce, exactly 4.92892159375 mL. Commonly rounded to 5 mL in recipes.
Teaspoons arrived with tea. Small spoons were common in Europe from at least the 13th century, and the earliest cited mention of a teaspoon is a London Gazette advertisement from 27 December 1686. Britain's Commutation Act of 1784 cut the tea tax from 119 percent to 12.5 percent, tea became cheap, and cups and spoons grew with it. By the 1850s the culinary teaspoon had settled as one third of a tablespoon.
The US teaspoon is one sixth of a US fluid ounce, exactly 4.92892159375 milliliters, though for nutrition labels and medicine it is rounded to 5 mL. Apothecaries once called the small spoon cochleare minus, to distinguish it from the larger cochleare majus. Household spoons are poor measuring tools: one study of 71 kitchen teaspoons found volumes from 2.5 to 7.3 milliliters, which is why dosing instructions point to standard measuring spoons or syringes.
1 US teaspoon = 0.004928921594 liters (approximately).
Sources: Wikipedia: Teaspoon; NIST SP 811, Appendix B.8: conversion factors for volume; 21 CFR 101.9: nutrition labeling household measures
Related conversions
- US teaspoons to US tablespoons (reverse)
- US tablespoons to liters
- US tablespoons to milliliters
- US tablespoons to US gallons
- US tablespoons to US cups
- US tablespoons to US fluid ounces
- US tablespoons to cubic meters
- US tablespoons to cubic centimeters
- US tablespoons to US quarts
- US tablespoons to US pints
- US tablespoons to metric cups
- US tablespoons to metric tablespoons
- US tablespoons to metric teaspoons
- Liters to US teaspoons
- Milliliters to US teaspoons
- US gallons to US teaspoons
- US cups to US teaspoons
- US fluid ounces to US teaspoons
- Cubic meters to US teaspoons
- Cubic centimeters to US teaspoons
- US quarts to US teaspoons
- US pints to US teaspoons
- Metric cups to US teaspoons
- Metric tablespoons to US teaspoons
- Metric teaspoons to US teaspoons
See all volume units.