What small bread roll is commonly served alongside Thanksgiving dinner?

The small bread roll commonly served alongside Thanksgiving dinner is a dinner roll.

A dinner roll is a small individual bread roll intended to accompany a meal, often served plain or with butter. It may be soft and enriched with milk, eggs, or butter, or it may have a crisper crust. The term describes its role and size more than one fixed recipe or shape.

Dinner rolls can be round, oval, folded, layered, or baked in connected clusters. Familiar styles include Parker House rolls, which were invented at Boston’s Parker House Hotel in the 1870s, and cloverleaf rolls, formed from three small dough balls baked together.

“Dinner roll” is broader than “biscuit.” In American usage, biscuits are usually chemically leavened and can be flaky or tender, while many dinner rolls are yeast-raised. Regional names for similar breads include bun, bap, batch, cob, and breadcake. At Thanksgiving, rolls are commonly used to mop up gravy or make small leftover-turkey sandwiches.