Other forms: utensils
A utensil is any tool used for preparing or eating food. Kitchen utensils, a cooking utensil, wash the utensils.
It covers spoons, whisks, tongs and pans, and it is the formal word — nobody says pass the utensil. In American English, utensils often means specifically knives, forks and spoons, which the British call cutlery. Note that the Latin means usable, from uti, to use.
1nounutensilAny tool used for preparing or eating food.
“Knives, wooden spoons and other kitchen utensils hung on the wall.”
Patternkitchen / cooking utensils · a wooden / metal utensil · utensil drawer / holder
utensil is a tool.
The Latin means useful: a utensil is any useful thing in the kitchen — a spoon, a knife, a pan.
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Latin utensilis means usable, from uti, to use. Utility, use and usual come from the same using.
Latin
ūtēnsilis — useful, usable
Old French
utensile
Middle English
utensyl
English, today
utensil
From Middle English utensyl, from Old French utensile, from Latin ūtēnsilis (“useful, usable”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA