A griddle is the large, usually flat cooking surface commonly used to cook pancakes.
A griddle may be a movable metal plate, a built-in stovetop surface or an electric appliance with its own heating element. Its broad, mostly level surface lets several pancakes cook at once, making it especially practical for home breakfasts, restaurants and large-scale pancake events.
Pancakes are also often cooked in a frying pan, so the two terms are not interchangeable in every context. A frying pan normally has raised sides and a handle, while a griddle emphasizes a wide cooking plate with little or no surrounding wall. Commercial griddles can be heated by electricity, natural gas or propane.
The word has medieval roots: English griddle is traced through Anglo-French forms to the Latin craticula, meaning a small griddle. Related flat cooking surfaces appear worldwide, including the convex saj used for flatbreads in parts of the Middle East and South Asia.