It's not just a pancake griddle. It's a griddle that's used for all kinds of frying that doesn't require a lot of fat. And we wouldn't call the griddle a skillet because it's larger than we think of skillets and not as deep as a skillet in our geographical area. Also, we think of skillets as having long handles.

I was just wondering whether others here refer to large, very shallow, virtually handleless pans as 'griddles,' too. And not as skillets.