-ful

-ful

suff.

1.

a. Full of: playful.

b. Characterized by; resembling: masterful.

c. Tending, given, or able to: useful.

2. A quantity that fills: armful.

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[Middle English, from Old English, from full, full; see full¹.]

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-ful

suffix

1. (forming adjectives) full of or characterized by painful spiteful restful

2. (forming adjectives) able or tending to helpful useful

3. (forming nouns) indicating as much as will fill the thing specified mouthful spoonful

[Old English -ful, -full, from full¹]

Usage: Where the amount held by a spoon, etc., is used as a rough unit of measurement, the correct form is spoonful, etc.: take a spoonful of this medicine every day. Spoon full is used in a sentence such as he held out a spoon full of dark liquid, where full of describes the spoon. A plural form such as spoonfuls is preferred by many speakers and writers to spoonsful