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:
Using the pancake model together with values derived from earlier studies, the researchers estimated how many bolides from Earth or Mars could have reached Venus' clouds.
From Science Daily ● Jun. 26, 2026
Save room for dessert, especially the kanom krok, a crispy round pancake filled with coconut cream that’s lightly sweet and impossible to stop eating.
From Salon ● Jun. 11, 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
Dishes she's made range from panackelty, a stew consisting of potatoes, onions and corned beef, to Staffordshire oatcakes, a type of yeasted pancake, and Lancashire hotpot, made with mutton or lamb.
From BBC ● Apr. 17, 2026
When they stopped to rest, Buzz gave the boys some pancake syrup and fruit rolls.
From "Mountain of Fire" by Rebecca E. F. Barone
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
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
I’m going for burnt pancakes, a family fishing trip, and—if my daughters are willing—an admission, out loud, that those close soccer games were won on the strength of my sideline insights.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 17, 2026
Last year, Daddy made me a huge breakfast in bed: ten pancakes, ten pieces of bacon, ten bananas, and ten little cups of orange juice.
From "Isaiah Dunn Is My Hero" by Kelly J. Baptist
Espy described the situation as “very grim,” with many high-rises leveled or pancaked in the tourist destination.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 29, 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
Skeletal remains of buildings bowed under roofs that pancaked in the blaze.
From Washington Times ● Aug. 11, 2023
Neat tile roofs shattered as they pancaked into a jumble.
From Seattle Times ● Jul. 11, 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
Brandon Baker, Mater Dei, Sr.: He’s leading a Monarchs’ offensive line that is pancaking opponents.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 24, 2023
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
The 11th overall pick in the draft that year was a pancaking left tackle who looked every bit a potentially dominant building block for the Jets’ offensive line as a rookie.
From Seattle Times ● Aug. 2, 2023
There also some alternative fun names for splooting, such as “frogging,” “frog dogging,” pancaking and “superman.”
From Slate ● Aug. 10, 2022
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.
