pancake
Americannoun
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pancakes
plural
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a thin, flat cake of batter fried on both sides on a griddle or in a frying pan; griddlecake or flapjack.
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Also called pancake landing. an airplane landing made by pancaking.
verb (used without object)
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pancakes,
present (3rd person singular)
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pancaked,
past participle, past
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pancaking
present participle
verb (used with object)
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pancakes,
present (3rd person singular)
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pancaked,
past participle, past
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pancaking
present participle
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Informal. to flatten, especially as the result of a collision or other mishap.
The car had been pancaked by the bus.
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to cause (an airplane) to pancake.
noun
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a thin flat cake made from batter and fried on both sides, often served rolled and filled with a sweet or savoury mixture
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( as modifier )
pancake mix
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a Scot name for drop scone
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a stick or flat cake of compressed make-up
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Also called: pancake landing. an aircraft landing made by levelling out a few feet from the ground and then dropping onto it
verb
Regionalisms
Pancake, hot cake, griddlecake, and flapjack, with its derived slapjack, are used interchangeably by many people, regardless of whether a pan or griddle is used for cooking, and each term is widely used throughout the U.S. Flannel cake, however, is confined chiefly to the North Midland U.S. and battercake to South Midland and Southern U.S. The following terms have limited regional use and may refer to flat cakes with different recipes or cooking methods: johnnycake, which is used in the Northeastern U.S.; corn cake in the Midland and Southern U.S.; and hoecake in the South Midland and Southern U.S.
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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pancakesimple
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pancakessimple
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have pancakedperfect
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has pancakedperfect
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am pancakingprogressive
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are pancakingprogressive
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is pancakingprogressive
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have been pancakingperfect progressive
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has been pancakingperfect progressive
Past
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pancakedsimple
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had pancakedperfect
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was pancakingprogressive
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were pancakingprogressive
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had been pancakingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of pancake
First recorded in 1400–50; late Middle English; see origin at pan 1, cake
Explanation
A pancake is a breakfast dish, a flat cake that's made by pouring batter into a hot pan and frying it on both sides. Many people like to eat their pancakes with a drizzle of maple syrup. While pancakes can be savory, they're more often a sweet breakfast food in the US. Most pancakes begin as a mixture of flour, eggs, milk, and butter, are fried on a greased griddle, and are circular in shape. Pancakes have a long history, stretching as least as far back as ancient Greece, and appear in various forms throughout the world, from savory African injera to the sweet Finnish dessert pancakes known as lettu.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Neighbors hosted pancake breakfasts and spaghetti nights to raise money for lawyers.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 12, 2026
They relied on the "pancake model," a widely used semi-analytic approach that describes how a bolide fragments while passing through an atmosphere.
From Science Daily ● Jun. 26, 2026
I love a pancake breakfast, but I especially love a banana pancake breakfast.
From Salon ● Jun. 20, 2026
As a soothing side dish, I recommend her malawax, a slightly sweet cardamom-scented pancake that goes well with breakfast coffee.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 17, 2026
“Point is, it ain’t right, what’s happening out there. That land belonged to the owls long before it belonged to the pancake house. Where you from, Tex?”
From "Hoot" by Carl Hiaasen
At Prezzo, members receive drinks or desserts when they spend at least £25, while Bill's offers a bottle of prosecco or pancakes when qualifying meals are ordered and the booking is made in advance.
From BBC ● Sep. 3, 2026
A vendor selling savoury pancakes, who did not give his name, said two universities had been established since the facilities were built.
From Barron's ● Aug. 19, 2026
While sipping on his coffee and munching on extra crispy bacon and blueberry pancakes Sunday morning, Baker sat at the Otesaga Resort where the Hall of Famers stay during induction weekend.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 28, 2026
You’ll need several bowls to make these pancakes.
From Salon ● Jun. 20, 2026
She and Mom and Malc had pancakes for dinner, so when she answers the door, the smell drifts out, and he says, Mmm.
From "A Heart in a Body in the World" by Deb Caletti
"One of the rescuers asked anyone trapped to whistle, and someone whistled back," he said near a pancaked building.
From Barron's ● Aug. 11, 2026
Driving down the newly paved military road along Gaza's border with Egypt, we pass the shattered remains of the old Rafah border crossing, the roof of one building cracked and pancaked on the ground.
From BBC ● Sep. 10, 2025
The fraternity house I lived in was a mere block from the Northridge Meadows, the apartment building that pancaked along Reseda Boulevard, killing 16.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 17, 2024
Rescuers stood atop the pancaked floors of one building in Amizmiz, bits of carpet and furniture protruding from the rubble.
From Reuters ● Sep. 9, 2023
Bending over with great effort, Ignatius stuck a finger into the valve of one of the tires until the hissing stopped and the tire’s bottom pancaked across the brick gutter.
From "A Confederacy of Dunces" by John Kennedy Toole
Then, last Tuesday, Jackie started pancaking — lying flat in the nest bowl — for long stretches and her eyes looked sleepy.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 3, 2026
It can flatten from the savage forces it experiences as it decelerates in a process called, and I love this, pancaking.
From Scientific American ● Sep. 8, 2023
There also some alternative fun names for splooting, such as “frogging,” “frog dogging,” pancaking and “superman.”
From Slate ● Aug. 10, 2022
Without air, we’d continue accelerating at 22 mph every second until pancaking into the ground.
From Washington Post ● Aug. 8, 2021
And just then a paper bag sailed from a window to my left and burst like a silent grenade, scattering garbage into the trees and pancaking to earth with a soggy, exhausted plop!
From "Invisible Man" by Ralph Ellison
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
