nunosempere.com/blog/2022/08/18/what-do-americans-mean-by-cutlery/index.md

What do Americans think 'cutlery' means?

A while ago, I got into a discussion about what Americans think that the word "cutlery" means. The person I was discussing this with claimed that Americans thought that this referred to cutting instruments, and I claimed that this was preposterous, and that it clearly means all eating instruments.

At some point, I became curious enough that I asked a few American friends, and then spent $50 or so on Positly to survey 21 americans—I overpaid because at the time I wanted to get the data soon. The results are pictured above. The underlying data can be found in here, and the code for replicating the chart is here. I'm not sure if 21 subjects is enough to come to a conclusion, but it was enough to satiate my own curiosity.