Cup ( unit ) - wikipedia Cup ( unit ) Measuring cups. Not to be confused with drinking cups, `` cup '' serving sizes, or measuring cups, which do not necessarily correspond with this unit. The cup is an English unit of volume, most commonly associated with cooking and serving sizes. It is traditionally equal to half a liquid pint in either US customary units or the British imperial system but is now separately defined in terms of the metric system at values between ⁄ and ⁄ of a liter. Because actual drinking cups may differ greatly from the size of this unit, standard measuring cups are usually used instead. Contents 1 United States 1.1 Legal cup 1.2 Customary cup 2 Commonwealth of Nations 2.1 Metric cup 2.2 Imperial cup 2.3 Canadian cup 3 International 3.1 Latin American cup 3.2 Japanese cup 4 Dry measure 5 See also 6 Notes 7 References United States Legal cup The cup currently used in the United States for nutrition labelling is defined in United States law as 240 ml. 1 U.S. `` legal '' cup = 240 millilitres = 16 international tablespoons = 12 Australian tablespoons ≈ 8.12 U.S. customary fluid ounces ≈ 8.45 imperial fluid ounces Customary cup Coffee carafe showing gradiations for measuring water ( right ) and brewed coffee ( left ) in multiples of non-standard U.S. customary cups. In the United States, the customary cup is half of a liquid pint. 1 U.S. customary cup = ⁄ U.S. customary gallon = ⁄ U.S. customary quart = ⁄ U.S. customary pint = 8 U.S. customary fluid ounces = 16 U.S. customary tablespoons = 48 U.S. customary teaspoons ≡ 236.5882365 millilitres exactly ≈ 15 ⁄ international tablespoons ≈ 11.75 Australian tablespoons ≈ 0.833 imperial cups ≈ 8.33 imperial fluid ounces A customary `` cup '' of coffee in the U.S. is usually defined as 4 fluid ounces, brewed using 5 fluid ounces of water. Coffee carafes used with drip coffee makers, such as Black and Decker models, have markings for both water and brewed coffee, since the carafe is also used for measuring water prior to brewing. A 12 - cup carafe, for example, has markings for 4, 6, 8, 10, and 12 cups of water or coffee, which correspond to 20, 30, 40, 50, and 60 fluid ounces of water or 16, 24, 32, 40, and 48 fluid ounces of brewed coffee, respectively, the difference being the volume lost to evaporation during brewing. Commonwealth of Nations Metric cup Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and some other members of the Commonwealth of Nations -- being former British colonies that have since metricated -- employ a `` metric cup '' of 250 millilitres. Although derived from the metric system, it is not an official metric unit. 1 cup = 250 millilitres = 16 ⁄ international tablespoons ( 15 ml each ) = 12.5 Australian tablespoons ( 20 ml each ) ≈ 8.80 imperial fluid ounces ≈ 8.45 U.S. customary fluid ounces A `` coffee cup '' is 1.5 dl or 150 millilitres or 5.07 US customary fluid ounces, and is occasionally used in recipes. It is also used in the US to specify coffeemaker sizes ( what can be referred to as a Tasse à café ). A `` 12 - cup '' US coffeemaker makes 57.6 US customary fluid ounces of coffee, or 6.8 metric cups of coffee. In older recipes cup may mean `` coffee cup ''. Imperial cup The official imperial cup was half an imperial pint or 10 imperial fluid ounces. It is no longer in common use, but appears in older recipe books. 1 imperial cup = 0.5 imperial pints = imperial gills = 10 imperial fluid ounces ≈ 284 millilitres ≈ 19 international tablespoons ≈ 14.25 Australian tablespoons ≈ 1.20 U.S. customary cups ≈ 9.61 U.S. customary fluid ounces Canadian cup Canada now usually employs the metric cup of 250 mL but its conventional cup was somewhat smaller than both American and imperial units. 1 Canadian cup = 8 imperial fluid ounce = 1 / 20 imperial gallon = 227.3045 millilitres 1 tablespoon = 1 / 2 imperial fluid ounce 1 teaspoon = 1 / 6 imperial fluid ounce International Similar units in other languages and cultures are sometimes translated `` cup '', usually with various values around ⁄ to ⁄ of a liter. Latin American cup In Latin America, the amount of a `` cup '' ( Spanish : taza or vaso ) varies from country to country, with some intending 200 mL, others 250 mL, and still others the US legal or customary amount. Japanese cup See also : Gō The traditional Japanese unit equated with a `` cup '' size is the gō, legally equated with 2401 / 13310 liters ( ≈ 180.4 ml ) in 1891. It is still used for reckoning amounts of rice and sake. Separately, the Japanese standardized a `` cup '' defined as 200 ml. 1 Japanese cup = 200 millilitres ≈ 7.04 imperial fluid ounces ≈ 6.76 U.S. customary fluid ounces Dry measure In English units, the cup derived from measures of liquid volume is also frequently used for small amounts of dry measure for fine or granulated bulk goods such as flour and sugar. In Europe, recipes normally weigh non-liquid ingredients in grams instead, using a kitchen scale, rather than employing volume units such as milliliters. For example, where an American customary recipe might specify `` 1 cup of sugar and 2 cups of milk '', a European recipe might specify `` 200 g sugar and 500 ml of milk '' ( or 0.5 litre or 5 decilitres ). Conversion between the two measures must take into account the density of the ingredients, and some recipes specify both weight and volume to simplify. Many European measuring cups have additional `` weight scales '' besides the dL or mL scale for reckoning the weight common bulk ingredients like sugar, flour, or rice by their volume. Volume to mass conversions for some common cooking ingredients ingredient density g / ml metric cup Imperial cup U.S. cup g oz g oz g oz water 250 8.8 284 10 237 -- 240 8.3 -- 8.4 granulated sugar 0.8 200 7.0 230 8.0 190 6.7 wheat flour 0.5 -- 0.6 120 -- 150 4.4 -- 5.3 140 -- 170 5.0 -- 6.0 120 -- 140 4.2 -- 5.0 table salt 1.2 300 10.6 340 12.0 280 10.0 See also Cooking weights and measures Notes Jump up ^ One gram per millilitre is very close to one avoirdupois ounce per fluid ounce : 1 g / ml ≈ 1.002 av oz / imp fl oz This is not a numerical coincidence, but comes from the original definition of the kilogram being aligned with the mass of one litre of water, and the imperial gallon as the volume occupied by ten avoirdupois pounds of water. The slight difference is due to water at 4 ° C ( 39 ° F ) being used for the kilogram, and at 62 ° F ( 17 ° C ) for the imperial gallon. The U.S. fluid ounce is slightly larger. 1 g / ml ≈ 1.043 av oz / U.S. fl oz. Jump up ^ The difference between the U.S. legal and customary definitions is smaller than the variation of density in most ingredients. Jump up ^ 1 g / ml is a good rough guide for water - based liquids such as milk ( the density of milk is about 1.03 -- 1.04 g / ml ) and alcoholic beverages, which are often less dense ( down to 0.95 g / ml ), especially when they do not contain additives like fruit or cream. Oils are less dense than water ( around 0.9 g / ml ). Jump up ^ The density of water ranges from about 0.96 to 1.00 g / ml dependent on temperature and pressure. The table above assumes room temperature. The variation is too small to make any difference in cooking. Jump up ^ Since 1 Imperial cup of water weighs approximately 10 Avoirdupois ounces and 5 Imperial cups are approximately equal to 6 U.S. cups, 1 U.S. customary cup of water weighs approximately 8 ⁄ avoirdupois ounces. References Jump up ^ ( 21 CFR 101.9 ( b ) ( 5 ) ( viii ) Jump up ^ U.S. Government Printing Office -- Electronic Code of Federal Regulations Archived 2009 - 08 - 13 at the Wayback Machine. Jump up ^ U.S. Food and Drug Administration -- Guidelines for Determining Metric Equivalents of Household Measures Jump up ^ `` Black and Decker Replacement Carafe ''. Retrieved 2016 - 12 - 30. Jump up ^ `` Standard Australian Cooking Measurements ''. Retrieved 2014 - 09 - 24. Jump up ^ `` coherent units ''. BIPM. Retrieved 2014 - 05 - 26. Jump up ^ Rosemary Hume and Muriel Downes, Penguin Cordon Bleu Cooking, Penguin Books, 1970 Jump up ^ Stephanie Alexander, The cook 's companion, Penguin Books, 2004 Jump up ^ Jacqueline Gérard, `` La cuisine '', Larousse 1980 Jump up ^ In the absence of measuring cups, tablespoons can be used for volume measurement. Jump up ^ The term international tablespoon as used in this article refers to the 15 ml ( ~ 0.5 fl oz ) tablespoon used in most countries. Jump up ^ The Australia tablespoon is defined as 20 ml ( ~ ⁄ fl oz ) Jump up ^ `` How Many Tablespoons in a Cup - Easy Conversions ''. First Health Mag. 2016 - 04 - 28. Retrieved 2016 - 05 - 08. Jump up ^ L. Fulton, E. Matthews, C. Davis : Average weight of a measured cup of various foods. Home Economics Research Report No. 41, Agricultural Research Service, United States Department of Agriculture, Washington, DC, 1977. Jump up ^ Water density calculator Jump up ^ The Physics Factbook Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Cup_(unit)&oldid=807340312 '' Categories : Units of volume Customary units of measurement in the United States Imperial units Metricated units Alcohol measurement Cooking weights and measures Hidden categories : Webarchive template wayback links All articles with unsourced statements Articles with unsourced statements from August 2017 Articles with unsourced statements from October 2016 Articles containing Spanish - language text Talk Contents About Wikipedia Català Deutsch Español فارسی Français 한국어 مازِرونی Svenska ไทย Edit links This page was last edited on 27 October 2017, at 10 : 26. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution - ShareAlike License ; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. 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Question: what is a cup measurement in american recipes
Answer: equal to half a liquid pint; traditionally equal to half a liquid pint in either US customary units or the British imperial system but is now separately defined in terms of the metric system at values between  1⁄5 and  1⁄4 of a liter