omelet

American  

[om-lit, om-uh-] / ˈɒm lɪt, ˈɒm ə- /

Or omelette

noun

1. eggs beaten until frothy, often combined with other ingredients, as herbs, chopped ham, cheese, or jelly, and cooked until set.

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Etymology

Origin of omelet

1605–15; < French omelette, earlier amelette, metathetic form of alemette, variant of alemelle literally, thin plate, variant of Old French lemelle < Latin lāmella. See lamella, -et

Explanation

An omelet is a dish you might order for breakfast or brunch — it's kind of like a folded pancake made of beaten eggs, sometimes with the addition of vegetables, cheese, or meat. Yum. A good omelet is a little bit fluffy, but firm enough to contain its filling. You cook an omelet by whisking eggs with a bit of water or milk and cooking them quickly over high heat without stirring. You can then fold the omelet in half to serve it. While the French word omelette was first used in the 1600s, the omelet itself may be more than two hundred years older than that. The Latin root, lamella, means "thin plate."

Example Sentences

We get up, and I start on an omelet as she gets ready.

From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 27, 2026

"We have a saying in the breakfast business that you can't make an omelet without cracking a few eggs, you know?" he said.

From Barron's • Mar. 21, 2026

Serve them on a charcuterie board, snack on slices straight from the package, or tuck them into an omelet.

From Salon • Dec. 4, 2025

Fit for Sunday mornings at Balmoral, this one will weather decades of omelet service and crossword solving.

From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 20, 2025

If I eat one more egg omelet I think I’ll turn over easy and cluck.

From "The Poisonwood Bible" by Barbara Kingsolver