List of types of spoons

For description and history, see spoon. For spoons other than utensils, see Spoon (disambiguation).

Eating utensils

Spoons are primarily used to transfer edibles from vessel to mouth, usually at a dining table. Named after a drink or food with which they are most often used, the material with which they are composed, or a feature of their appearance or structure.

• bouillon spoon — round-bowled, somewhat smaller than a soup spoon
• caviar spoon — usually made of mother of pearl, gold, animal horn or wood but not silver, which would affect the taste
• Chinese spoon a type of soup spoon
• coffee spoon — small, for use with after-dinner coffee cups, (usu: smaller than teaspoon)
• cutty — short, chiefly Scot and Irish
• demitasse spoon — diminutive, smaller than a teaspoon; for traditional coffee drinks in specialty cups and for spooning cappuccino froth
• dessert spoon — intermediate in size between a teaspoon and a tablespoon, used in eating dessert and sometimes soup or cereals
• egg spoon — for eating boiled eggs; with a shorter handle and bowl, a more pointed tip and often a more rounded bowl than a teaspoon
• grapefruit spoon or orange spoon — tapers to a sharp point or teeth, used for citrus fruits and melons
• horn spoon — a spoon made of horn, used chiefly interjectionally in the phrase By the Great Horn Spoon!, as in the children's novel of that title by Sid Fleischman
• ice cream fork — although called a "spork", this implement has a bowl like a teaspoon with the point made into 3 stubby tines that dig easily into frozen ice cream
• iced tea spoon — with a very long handle
• marrow spoon or marrow scoop — 18th century, often of silver, with a long thin bowl suitable for removing marrow from a bone
• plastic spoon — cheap, disposable, flexible, stain resistant, sometimes biodegradable; black, white, colored or clear; smooth, non-porous surface; varied types and uses
• rattail spoon — developed in the later 17th century; with a thin pointed tongue on the bottom of the bowl to reinforce the joint of bowl and handle
• runcible spoon — often used for a fork with three broad curved prongs and a sharpened edge or a grapefruit spoon with a serrated bowl, used with pickles or hors d'oeuvres; often synonymous with spork or splade, though sometimes defined as a type of olive spoon; originally a fictitious utensil, still referenced in modern fantastical literature
• salt spoon — miniature, used with an open salt cellar for individual service
• saucier spoon — slightly flattened spoon with a notch in one side; used for drizzling sauces over fish or other delicate foods.
• soup spoon — with a large or rounded bowl for eating soup. Example:
  • cream-soup spoon — round-bowled, slightly shorter than a standard soup spoon
• teaspoon — small, suitable for stirring and sipping tea or coffee, standard capacity one third of a tablespoon, unit of volume.
• tablespoon — volume of three teaspoons. Sometimes used for ice cream and soup, unit of volume.
• seal-top spoon — silver, end of handle in the form of a circular seal; popular in England in the later 16th and 17th centuries
• spork or Splayd — differing combinations of a spoon with a fork or knife

Cooking and serving utensils

Spoons primarily used in food preparation, handling or serving, in the kitchen or at the table. Most are named after an edible for which they are specially designed. Two utensils with spoon-shaped ends conclude the list.

• absinthe spoon — perforated or slotted to dissolve a sugar cube in a glass of absinthe; normally flat bowl, with a notch in the handle where it rests on the rim of a glass
• bar spoon — equivalent to a teaspoon, used in measuring ingredients for mixed drinks
• berry spoon — large, with a broad deep bowl; used in serving berries, salad and other juicy foods
• bonbon spoon — with a flat perforated bowl for bonbons and nuts
• caddy spoon — used for measuring tea leaves, traditionally made of silver
• cheese scoop — pointed spoonlike table implement for scooping out cheese. Example:
  • Stilton spoon — traditionally used for taking portions from a whole wheel of Stilton cheese without disturbing the rind
• chutney spoon — for hygienically dispensing chutneys, especially mango chutney, from a communal open or lidded dish; the two are usually manufactured together as part of a multi-purpose dispenser in restaurants; alternatively may come with a specially designed and matching chutney spoon holder for domestic use
• jelly spoon — for serving fruit preserves; sometimes with a point and an odd-shaped edge; sometimes used with a jelly jar

• ladle — with a deep bowl and a long handle attached at a steep angle, to scoop and convey liquids
• mote spoon — perforated, used to sieve loose tea from a cup; handle finial has a spike to unclog the teapot spout
• mustard spoon — for serving mustard; usually small, with a deep bowl elongated to form a scoop and set at right angles to the handle
• olive spoon — used to remove olives from their liquid, while allowing the liquid to drain easily from the spoon; typically made from stainless steel; has slots or a hole cut from the bottom of a bowl-shaped head to release the liquid from the spoon; also used to lift cherries, cocktail onions, pickled garlic and similar condiments from the liquids used to store the foods
• salt spoon — miniature, used with an open salt cellar for individual service
• serving spoon — serves and portions salads, vegetables and fruits; larger than a tablespoon; bowl round rather than oval, to take up food more easily; long handle
• slotted spoon — used in food preparation; has slots, holes or other openings in the bowl which let liquid pass through while preserving the larger solids on top
• stirrer — utensil with a long stem and usually a spoon end for mixing drinks
• sugar tongs — pair of usually silver tongs with claw-shaped or spoon-shaped ends for serving lump sugar
• sugar spoon or sugar shell — for serving granulated sugar; bowl often molded in the form of a sea shell
• tablespoon — large, usually used for serving (UK); main kind of spoon used for eating (USA)
• tea infuser or tea maker — perforated and covered, holds tea leaves, used in brewing tea in a cup
• wooden spoon — made of wood, commonly used in food preparation

Other objects

Items in the form of spoons used for ceremonial or commemorative purposes, or for functions other than ingesting comestibles.

• anointing spoon or coronation spoon — a silver spoon, part of the Crown Jewels of the United Kingdom, the regalia used for the coronation of English monarchs; first used in the 12th century
• apostle spoon — a christening gift with the bust of an apostle as the finial
• cochlear — spoon used in the Eastern Orthodox Church in serving the consecrated wine, sometimes with a particle of the sacramental bread
• lovespoon — a wooden spoon, often with double bowl, formerly carved by a Welsh suitor as a gift of betrothal for his promised bride
• maidenhead spoon — 16th century silver or silver-gilt spoon with handle terminating in a bust of the Virgin Mary
• silver spoon — a small spoon given to a newborn child to ensure good fortune; used as a metaphor for someone born to riches
• souvenir spoon— decorative, used to commemorate a place or event
• wooden spoon — a spoon made of wood presented originally at Cambridge University to the man ranking lowest among those taking honors in the mathematical tripos, and at other colleges and universities to other selected recipients

• cocaine spoon or coke spoon — a very small spoon used to sniff cocaine
• ear spoon — a small spoon used to remove earwax, more common before the marketing of cotton-tipped swabs for this purpose