A tortilla is a thin, flat, round bread, about the size of a plate, made from corn flour or wheat flour and cooked quickly on a hot dry pan. It comes from Mexico and is eaten across Mexico and Central America, and now everywhere. It is soft and bendy when fresh, so you wrap food in it — that is what a taco or a burrito is, food wrapped in a tortilla.

Say it "tor-TEE-ya". The two l's together make a y sound, because the word is Spanish. English speakers who have never heard it said aloud often try "tor-TILL-a", and that sounds wrong to everyone.

Two kinds you will meet. Corn tortillas are smaller, yellowish or white, with a stronger smell, and they tear more easily — these are the traditional Mexican ones. Flour tortillas are bigger, paler, softer, stretchier, and they are what most burritos and wraps use.

Though actually there is a second, quite different tortilla, and it confuses people. In SPAIN, a tortilla is not bread at all — it is a thick omelette made with eggs and potato, cut into wedges like a cake. Spanish people call it tortilla española or tortilla de patatas. So if a Spanish friend offers you a tortilla and you are expecting a flat bread, you will get a surprise. In English, the Mexican meaning is the usual one; the Spanish dish is normally called a "Spanish omelette" to keep them apart.

It is a countable noun: one tortilla, three tortillas.