The centiliter, unit of volume
The centiliter is exactly ten milliliters, a hundredth of a liter. It is barely used in science and constantly used on labels, because it turns bottle sizes into short round numbers.
It survives because of a directive. European rules on prepackaged liquids, first laid down in 1975 and rewritten in 2007, deregulated most container sizes but kept a fixed list for wine and spirits: a wine bottle must be 75 centiliters or one of a few other permitted sizes, and a spirits bottle 70. Those numbers are printed in centiliters rather than milliliters because two digits read faster than three on a glass surface, which is the whole reason the unit is still alive.
The centiliter in other units
| 1 cl | 0.00001 m³ |
| 1 cl | 0.01 l |
| 1 cl | 10 ml |
| 1 cl | 0.00264172 gal |
| 1 cl | 0.00219969 gal UK |
| 1 cl | 0.0211338 pt |
| 1 cl | 0.33814 fl oz |
| 1 cl | 0.351951 fl oz UK |
| 1 cl | 0.0105669 qt |
| 1 cl | 0.00879877 qt UK |
| 1 cl | 0.0175975 pt UK |
| 1 cl | 0.0422675 cup |
| 1 cl | 0.04 cup metric |
| 1 cl | 0.05 cup JP |
| 1 cl | 0.67628 tbsp |
| 1 cl | 0.666667 tbsp metric |
| 1 cl | 0.5 tbsp AU |
| 1 cl | 2.02884 tsp |
| 1 cl | 2 tsp metric |
| 1 cl | 0.1 dl |
| 1 cl | 0.0000628981 bbl |
| 1 cl | 0.00554352 sho |
| 1 cl | 0.0554352 go |
Frequently asked questions
How many milliliters are in a centiliter?
Ten exactly. A 75 centiliter bottle is therefore 750 milliliters, or three quarters of a liter, and the two labels describe the same glass.
Why is a wine bottle 75 cl and a spirits bottle 70?
Because the permitted sizes were fixed separately for the two categories in the European rules on prepackaged liquids. Neither figure comes from a physical constraint; both come from a list, which is why they never moved after the metric system arrived.
Is the centiliter used anywhere but on bottles?
Rarely. Science and cooking both prefer the milliliter, and the liter carries anything larger. The centiliter lives on labels and in bar measures, where a short number on a small surface is worth more than consistency with the rest of the metric ladder.