A white glazed ceramic mug branded with the Wikipedia logo

A mug is a sturdily built type of cup often used for drinking hot beverages, such as coffee, tea, or hot chocolate. Mugs, by definition, have handles and often hold a larger amount of fluid than other types of cups. In more formal settings a mug is usually not used for serving hot beverages, with a teacup or coffee cup being preferred. File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... ... A cup of coffee. ... Tea leaves in a Chinese gaiwan. ... <nowiki>Insert non-formatted text here <gallery> Insert non-formatted text here </gallery></nowiki>:For the beverage, see Hot chocolate. ... A fluid is defined as a substance that continually deforms (flows) under an applied shear stress regardless of the magnitude of the applied stress. ... A teacup on a saucer A tea bowl without a handle A teacup is a small cup with a handle, generally a small one that may be grasped with the thumb and one or two fingers. ...

Many mugs are made of ceramic materials such as earthenware, bone china, porcelain or stoneware. Some are made from strengthened glass, such as Pyrex. Other materials, including plastic, steel and enameled metal are used where break resistance is at a premium, such as for campers. Techniques such as silk screen printing or decals can be used to apply decorations; these are fired onto the mug to ensure permanence. Fixed Partial Denture, or Bridge The word ceramic is derived from the Greek word κεραμικός (keramikos). ... Earthenware is a common ceramic material, which is used extensively for pottery tableware and decorative objects. ... Bone china is type of porcelain body first developed in the Britain in which calcined ox bone, bone ash, is a major constituent. ... “Fine China” redirects here. ... A Staffordshire stoneware plate from the 1850s with transferred copper print - (From the home of JL Runeberg) Stoneware is a category of clay and a type of ceramic distinguished primarily by its firing and maturation temperature (from about 1200°C to 1315 °C). ... // For the programming language, see Pyrex (programming language). ... In a discussion of art technology, enamel (or vitreous enamel, or porcelain enamel in American English) is the colorful result of fusion of powdered glass to a substrate through the process of firing, usually between 750 and 850 degrees Celsius. ... Camper can be one of several things: an automobile used for camping, see recreational vehicle. ... Screen-printing, also known as silkscreening or serigraphy, is a printmaking technique that creates a sharp-edged single-color image using a stencil and a porous fabric. ... Look up Decal in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

Functions

Though at first glance a very simple object, the mug serves a number of functions which make it especially suited to holding hot liquids:

• Provides a handle: (i) for grasping, and (ii) provides a cool area of the mug that is insulated from the hot liquid by distance.
• Hot beverages may be too hot to drink, with temperatures often nearing the boiling point of water. The thick walls of a typical mug will absorb much of this heat when the liquid is first poured into the mug and so lower the beverage closer to potable temperatures.
• The mug stores some heat from the beverage, and so prevents it from cooling too quickly. The design of a mug helps insulation: (i) thick walls separate the beverage from the cool external air, and (ii) an indented base separates the beverage from the surface upon which the mug is set. The shape of the base forms the characteristic O-shaped stain, so often seen upon desks and documents.

Specialist designs

A travel mug is a variation on the traditional mug that is better for transporting hot liquids. It may or may not be a vacuum flask, but is usually well insulated and completely enclosed, with an easily closed opening on the top. Lunchbox and vacuum bottle owned by Harry S. Truman A vacuum flask or Thermos flask is a bottle that reduces heat transfer from the inside to the outside and conversely to a minimum, and therefore keeps warm drinks warm and refrigerated drinks cold. ...

A puzzle mug is a novelty that is counter-intuitive. It will usually have several holes in the rim, making it impossible to drink from in the normal way. Frequently the solution is to cover all the holes in the rim, and then drink via another hole in the hollow handle. A novelty is a small manufactured adornment, especially a personal adornment. ...