The answer is SPATULA, seven letters. Few clues a puzzle can print are vaguer than Kitchen item, so treat SPATULA as a starting point rather than a certainty. DRAINER, BLENDER and TOASTER also fit seven squares, and shorter slots want PAN, OVEN, SIEVE or LADLE.
Why the words alone cannot solve this one
Kitchen item names a category, not a thing, and a clue like that only works because the grid tells you how many squares to fill. One database of published answers lists more than thirty fills for this exact wording, from three-letter PAN and WOK to twelve-letter POTATO MASHER and CARVING KNIFE. Many of the recent appearances come from British quick crosswords such as the Mirror and the Telegraph, which print the letter count after the clue and split it for two-word answers, as in Kitchen item (6,3) for FRYING PAN.
So the first move is not to think about kitchens at all. Count the squares, note any split in the count, and only then go looking through the list below. American puzzles use the clue too, and Universal has answered it with SPONGE.
Kitchen answers from PAN to POTATO MASHER
Every answer here has appeared for this exact clue.
| Letters | Answer | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| 3 | PAN | The general cooking vessel |
| 3 | WOK | Stir-frying |
| 4 | OVEN | An appliance counts |
| 4 | OLEO | Older grids, margarine |
| 5 | SIEVE | Straining or sifting |
| 5 | LADLE | Serving soup |
| 5 | RICER | Pressing cooked potato |
| 6 | SPIDER | A legged skillet or a skimmer |
| 6 | EGGCUP | Holding a boiled egg |
| 7 | SPATULA | Flipping or scraping |
| 7 | DRAINER | Drying washed dishes |
| 8 | SAUCEPAN | A deep pan with a handle |
| 9 | FRYINGPAN | Two words |
| 10 | ROLLINGPIN | Two words |
| 12 | POTATOMASHER | Two words |
Seven squares is the crowded length. SPATULA, DRAINER, BLENDER, TOASTER, UTENSIL, STEWPAN and CHIP PAN all fit, so get a crossing or two before you commit.
A spatula is a little sword
SPATULA comes straight from Latin, where spatula meant a broad flat piece and was the diminutive of spatha, a broad flat tool or weapon. Spatha came from the Greek spathe, a broad blade used by weavers and also the blade of a sword or an oar. English took the word in the 1520s, after using it earlier for a medical instrument, and the pure Latin form seems to have bothered English speakers, who tried spatule, spattle and even spartle along the way.
The same spatha is behind the spade on playing cards. The suit name appeared in the 1590s, probably from the Italian spade, swords, the plural of spada. So the tool that flips your pancakes and the black suit in your card deck are, etymologically, a small sword and a large one.
Spatula means different tools in different countries
Americans and Britons do not picture quite the same tool when they hear the word. In American English a spatula is most often the turner or flipper, the flat tool you slide under a pancake or a fish fillet, which British cooks call a fish slice. In British English a spatula is closer in shape to a palette knife, and it is also the flat stick a doctor uses to hold down your tongue. Both use the word for the flexible scraper that cleans out a mixing bowl.
That split shows up elsewhere in this clue’s answers. TEA TOWEL is the British and Irish name for a dish towel, and CHIP PAN is a pan for deep-frying chips, which Americans would call fries.
The spider, the oleo and two plainer tools
SPIDER is the entry that makes solvers second-guess their crossings, yet it has two kitchen meanings. The older one is a cast-iron frying pan with three legs, once common in open-hearth cooking. The newer one is a spider skimmer, a round wire-mesh basket on a long handle for lifting food out of hot oil. OLEO is the other old-timer. It is short for oleomargarine, a word from 1873 for a butter substitute then made from beef fat, and older puzzles have used it for this very clue.
Two of the five-letter tools explain themselves once you know their roots. LADLE comes from the Old English hlædel, built on a verb meaning to load or draw up water plus the same tool-making suffix that ends handle. RICER is named for its output, since it pushes soft food, usually cooked potato, through holes about the size of a grain of rice.
Frequently asked questions
What is the three letter answer for kitchen item?
PAN and WOK both fit three squares, and POT and TIN have appeared in older grids. All four share the same consonant, vowel, consonant shape, so write nothing in until a crossing letter confirms which one the puzzle wants.
What is a spider in the kitchen?
A spider is either a cast-iron frying pan with three legs, once common in open-hearth cooking, or a round wire-mesh skimmer on a long handle for lifting food out of hot oil. SPIDER has answered this clue at six letters in older puzzles.
Why do some answers look British?
Many recent appearances of this clue come from British quick crosswords, so fills like TEA TOWEL, EGG CUP and CHIP PAN turn up. If you are working an American grid, check the letter count and at least one crossing before writing in a British term.
