A tablespoon is a large spoon used for serving food at the table, and also a unit of measurement in cooking.

When you're setting the table for dinner, you might put out tablespoons for serving mashed potatoes or vegetables. These serving spoons are bigger than the spoons you eat with (called teaspoons) but smaller than ladles.

In recipes, a tablespoon is a standard measurement, abbreviated as “Tbsp” or “T.” One tablespoon equals three teaspoons, which helps when you're baking cookies or making pancakes and need to measure ingredients precisely. If a recipe calls for two tablespoons of honey or one tablespoon of vanilla extract, you'd use a special measuring spoon marked “Tbsp” to get exactly the right amount.

The connection between the two meanings is simple: the measurement was originally based on the size of an actual serving spoon. Cooks needed a way to write down recipes that others could follow, so they used familiar objects as their measuring tools. Today, measuring spoons are standardized to ensure that your tablespoon of flour is the same size as your friend's tablespoon of flour, even if the serving spoons at home are different sizes.