Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
fry bread

fry bread

5 6.1
A flat fried bread made from wheat or corn, often served in Native American communities
  • noun
  • /fraɪ brɛd/
  • US
: pan frito
  • She lingered to watch them as Grandfather and her brothers walked to the hogan for some of Grandmother's tasty fry bread.
  • fry bread and mutton stew
  • piece of fry bread
  • fry bread and mutton

You know, it's been so long since I've had some of that good fry bread and like, my kids didn't know what it was.

Examples

  • He was a chubby kid whose first happy travel memory is of scarfing down Navajo fry bread at a rodeo in Arizona when he was in fourth grade.

    Blog text (15)

  • Most fry bread includes flour, sugar, lard, salt, and a leavening agent.

    Blog text (13)

  • The evening meal was warm fry bread and ham.

    Fiction book (2002)

  • I do have bacon, fry bread and beans.

    Monster Grizzly (2023)

  • After the tent was up, Papa bought Joseph a piece of hot fry bread.

    Fiction book (1997)

  • He liked the smell and taste of the hot fry bread.

    Fiction book (1997)

  • Do you have a traditional recipe for Navajo fry bread?

    Blog text (27)

  • Evie and Lydia were making fry bread, waiting for the corn soup to cool enough to serve their mother.

    Fiction book (1992)

  • She's at Navajo Fair eating fry bread and cotton candy, dancing the Two-Step with her boyfriend.

    Fiction book (1994)

  • The evening meal featured warm fry bread topped with honey and butter.

Synonyms

skillet bread
vsfry bread
  • US
1 4.7

Bread cooked in a skillet over a fire, often made as cornbread or soda bread with ham added

is broader as it can be cooked in oil and made from various flours
skillet corn bread
vsfry bread
  • US
1 3.4

A type of cornbread cooked in a frying pan that has a crisp golden crust

is cooked in hot oil or in a pan using wheat, corn, or both

Surface Forms

fry bread singular
fry breads plural

Morphology

fry + bread

The meaning 'a type of bread that is fried' is directly and compositionally derived from 'fry' (cook in oil) + 'bread' (baked/dough product), so a learner who knows both words can infer it refers to bread prepared by frying. Although it can denote a specific cultural dish, the cooking-method + food structure is cross-linguistically common and therefore immediately comprehensible to a B1 learner.

Etymology

Fry bread comes from Native American kitchens where people mixed a simple dough and cooked it in hot fat or oil until it puffed and turned golden. The name is plain: you fry the bread, so today the phrase means a flat, fried bread often eaten at gatherings.