spoonful

From Middle English sponeful, sponefull, sponful, spone-ful, equivalent to spoon +‎ -ful.

• IPA^(key): /ˈspuːnfəl/, /ˈspuːnfʊl/
• (obsolete) IPA^(key): /ˈspʌnfʊl/[1]

spoonful (plural spoonfuls or spoonsful)

1. The amount that a spoon will hold, either level or heaped.
   • 1959, Georgette Heyer, chapter 1, in The Unknown Ajax:

     But Richmond […] appeared to lose himself in his own reflections. Some pickled crab, which he had not touched, had been removed with a damson pie; and his sister saw […] that he had eaten no more than a spoonful of that either.

• a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down, a spoonful of sugar makes the medicine go down