Cup

A cup is a small open container used for drinking and carrying drinks. It may be made of wood, plastic, glass, clay, metal, stone, china or other materials, and may have a stem, handles or other adornments. Cups are used for quenching thirst across a wide range of cultures and social classes, and different styles of cups may be used for different liquids or in different situations.

Cups have been used for thousands of years for the purpose of carrying food and drink, as well as for decoration. They may also be used in certain cultural rituals and to hold objects not intended for drinking such as coin.

Names for different types of cups vary regionally and may overlap. Any transparent cup, regardless of actual composition, is likely to be called a "glass"; therefore, while a cup made of paper is a "paper cup", a transparent one for drinking shots is called a "shot glass", instead.

While in theory, most cups are well suited to hold drinkable liquids, hot drinks like tea are generally served in either insulated cups or porcelain teacups.

Disposable cups are intended to be used only once. They are often used by fast-food restaurants and coffee shops to serve beverages. Institutions that provide drinking water, such as offices and hospitals, may also use disposable cups for sanitary reasons.

Some styles of cups are used primarily for alcoholic beverages such as beer, wine, cocktail, and liquor. There are over a dozen distinct styles of cups for drinking beer, depending on the precise variety of beer. The idea that a certain beer should be served in a cup of a certain shape may have been promulgated more for marketing purposes, but there very well may be some basis in fact behind it.Wine glasses also come in different shapes, depending on the color and style of wine that is intended to be served in them.

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Wikipedia