pancake
Americannoun
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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)
verb (used with object)
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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:
The act is very simple: I ask whether anyone would like a pancake for the table.
From Salon ● Jul. 20, 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
Its undulating form has earned its share of abuse, and it has been compared to a pancake or an amoeba.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 17, 2026
A pancake for the table at Kitchen Mouse, garden hopping at the Huntington and “blue couch time” are on the agenda for the comedian.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 1, 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
Similarly, packaged pancakes and waffles are filled with sugars and are often ultraprocessed, loaded with harmful additives.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 21, 2026
You’ll need several bowls to make these pancakes.
From Salon ● Jun. 20, 2026
It’s like walking down to the kitchen and finding the cat in an apron flipping pancakes.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 14, 2026
It's pancakes for Christie, while John Souttar is the barista to McGinn.
From BBC ● Jun. 3, 2026
He disappeared into the cabin and returned with a platter of sourdough pancakes two inches thick and a jug of honey.
From "Black Star, Bright Dawn" by Scott O'Dell
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
There are pictures from Ishikawa of old wooden houses pancaked by the quake.
From BBC ● Jan. 1, 2024
Neat tile roofs shattered as they pancaked into a jumble.
From Seattle Times ● Jul. 11, 2023
Even though Turkey has, on paper, construction codes that meet current earthquake-engineering standards, they are too rarely enforced, explaining why thousands of buildings slumped onto their side or pancaked downward onto residents.
From Washington Times ● Feb. 12, 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
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
But certainly they are moving in the same direction, and there should be no joy found in watching the present and past pancaking back on itself.
From Slate ● Jan. 4, 2023
They hit again, pushing, pummeling, pancaking, claiming dominance of a field they once ruled, a moment they once owned.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 4, 2022
This week a container slid off a truck making a turn on a narrow street, pancaking a parked car.
From Seattle Times ● Oct. 20, 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.
