A pretzel is a salty bread, baked in a loose knot or as a long thin stick. The knot is the picture most people have: a pale or brown twist, often with big salt crystals on the outside, sometimes with seeds. Though actually, not every pretzel is hard. The little ones in snack bags are dry and crunchy, more like a cracker. The ones you buy warm from a bakery or a stall can be soft in the middle, like a roll, and people eat those with butter or a thick sauce. In the United States they are an ordinary snack, the kind you see at a ball game. In Germany they are everyday bread, not a treat. English speakers also stretch the word a little: if someone sits with their legs twisted together, a friend might say they are sitting like a pretzel. That is playful talk, not the food sense.