Flatware is the American term for flat pieces of crockery — plates — and, more broadly in US usage, for cutlery itself. The word’s logic is shape: flatware is the flat tableware, as opposed to hollowware — the bowls, cups, and serving dishes with volume. In the American table-setting vocabulary, “flatware” on a wedding registry means knives, forks, and spoons, while in catering it can still mean the plates. The transatlantic split confuses: a Briton hears “flatware” and thinks plates, an American and thinks cutlery. Whatever the meaning, the category covers the essential surfaces of eating — what the food sits on and what lifts it. It is tableware named by geometry: flat for the plate, hollow for the bowl, and the meal arranged across both.