A kettle is a container used for boiling water, typically made of metal or another heat-resistant material with a spout for pouring, a handle for carrying, and a lid on top. When you want hot water for tea, hot chocolate, or instant soup, you fill a kettle with water and heat it on the stove or plug it in if it's electric.

Traditional stovetop kettles sit directly on a burner and often whistle when the water reaches a boil, a handy signal that your water is ready. Electric kettles have a heating element built into the base and automatically shut off when the water boils. Both types have been kitchen essentials for centuries.

You might hear the phrase “the pot calling the kettle black,” which means criticizing someone for a fault you have yourself. It comes from the days when both pots and kettles would turn black from sitting over sooty cooking fires.

A teakettle specifically refers to a kettle used for making tea, though the terms are often used interchangeably. In British English, what Americans call a teakettle is often simply called a kettle, since boiling water for tea is so common there.