Pretzels are a baked dough snack that primarily comes in two forms: soft and hard. The traditional pretzel is wrapped up in a "pretzel knot" before baking, but straight pretzel sticks are also a very popular snack. Pretzels usually have coarse salt on them, but nuts, seeds, glazes and sugars can also be substituted.
Pretzels fall into the "chip" family due to their packaging and location in most grocery stores.