Meaning & use
johnnycake
Last updated
Meanings
nouncountableAmerican
A flat, round bread made of cornmeal and cooked on a griddle or in a pan.
Grammar: Countable: a stack of johnnycakes.
Patterns
- a stack of johnnycakes
Grandma fried johnnycakes and served them with maple syrup.
The cook mixed cornmeal and water to make johnnycakes.
We ate johnnycakes with butter at the roadside stand.
nouncountableregional
A fried or baked flatbread made in the Caribbean and parts of Canada.
Grammar: A regional variant, often made with wheat flour.
Patterns
- fried johnnycake
Johnnycakes were served with salted fish at the market.
She learned to bake johnnycake from her aunt in the Bahamas.
The street vendor sold hot johnnycakes by the dozen.
Word forms
| plural | johnnycakes |
|---|
Common combinations
- fry johnnycakes
- He likes to fry johnnycakes for Sunday breakfast.
- cornmeal johnnycake
- A cornmeal johnnycake needs only three ingredients.
- johnnycakes and syrup
- We ate johnnycakes and syrup.
- stack of johnnycakes
- A stack of johnnycakes sat on the table.
- Rhode Island johnnycake
- A Rhode Island johnnycake is thin and crisp.
Synonyms and how they differ
- flatbread
- Flatbread is the general category, while johnnycake specifies the cornmeal kind.
- hoecake
- Hoecake is a southern American cornmeal cake, close in meaning but often thicker.
- pancake
- Pancake usually means a wheat-flour breakfast cake and is lighter than a johnnycake.
- corn cake
- Corn cake is a plain description that covers many cornmeal breads.
Word family
- johnny cake noun
- a variant spelling
- journey cake noun
- an older name sometimes linked to the word
- cornmeal noun
- the ground corn used to make it
- cake noun
- a flat baked food
Commonly confused: johnnycake or johnny cake vs shortcake?
johnnycake vs johnny cake vs shortcake
Johnnycake is a plain cornmeal bread, whereas shortcake is a sweet, crumbly dessert.
Practice
What is the main ingredient of a traditional johnnycake?
Choose one answer.
A johnnycake is made from cornmeal, usually cooked on a griddle. The other ingredients are not traditional.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “johnnycake”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.