A utensil is a tool you use for preparing, serving, or eating food. Forks, spoons, and knives are utensils. So are spatulas, whisks, ladles, and tongs. If you pick it up to help you cook or eat, it's probably a utensil.

Utensils are practical tools meant to be used, not just looked at. A chef might have dozens of specialized utensils in the kitchen, each designed for a specific task: a slotted spoon for lifting vegetables out of boiling water, a pastry brush for spreading butter on dough, or kitchen shears for cutting herbs.

Some utensils appear in nearly every kitchen: measuring cups, can openers, peelers, graters. Others are more specialized, like a melon baller or a garlic press. Different cultures have different traditional utensils too. Chopsticks are the primary eating utensils across much of Asia, while many Ethiopian dishes are eaten with your hands, using injera bread as an edible utensil.

When you're setting a table, you're arranging the utensils. When a recipe says to “grease a baking pan,” you might use a paper towel, but a pastry brush is a proper utensil for the job.