A stovetop is the flat upper surface of a stove where you place pots and pans to cook food. It has burners (heating elements) that get hot when you turn them on, whether they run on gas flames or electricity. When your family makes pancakes for breakfast or heats up soup for lunch, they're cooking on the stovetop.

The stovetop sits above the oven, which is the enclosed box below used for baking and roasting. While the oven surrounds food with heat from all sides, the stovetop heats from directly underneath, giving cooks precise control over temperature. You can quickly turn a stovetop burner up or down, making it perfect for tasks that need careful attention, like melting butter without burning it or keeping water at a gentle simmer.

Most modern stovetops have four burners of different sizes: smaller ones for a pot of oatmeal, larger ones for a big stockpot of pasta. Some people call the stovetop a cooktop, especially when it's a separate unit built into a kitchen counter rather than attached to an oven.