Lavash (Armenian: լավաշ; Persian: نان لواش) is a thin flatbread[9] usually leavened, traditionally baked in a tandoor (tonir or tanoor) or on a sajj, and common to the cuisines of South Caucasus, West Asia, and the areas surrounding the Caspian Sea.

[15] In 2016, making and sharing flatbread (lavash, katyrma, jupka or yufka) in communities of Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Turkey was inscribed on the list as well.

[17] Hrach Martirosyan tentatively connects Armenian lavash with dialectal լափ lapʿ, լուփ lupʿ, լովազ lovaz 'palm, flat of the hand', լափուկ lapʿuk, լեփուկ lepʿuk 'flat, polished stone for playing', լավազ lavaz 'very thin' and assumes derivation from Proto-Armenian *law 'flat'.

[18] Sevan Nişanyan connects the Persian word for lavash to the Aramaic לושׁ lwš root meaning 'to knead' and recorded al-Faraj ba'd ash-Shiddah from 1451 as the oldest text to use the term in Turkish.

[20] Gil Marks traces the history of lavash to the early innovation of cooking thin flatbreads on terracotta griddles.

Traditionally the dough is rolled out flat and slapped against the hot walls of a clay oven, but modern recipes may adapt for cooking on a wok or tava.

In Armenian villages, dried lavash is stacked high in layers to be used later, and when the time comes to rehydrate the bread, it is sprinkled with water to make it softer again.

The weekend open-air arts-and-crafts market in downtown Yerevan offers many lavash-related paintings and handiworks, with renditions of happy women making lavash having become a common sight.