One of the most important questions of our time is also one of the most difficult to answer. How exactly do you define a sandwich, and does a hot dog qualify?

On the one hand, it is a piece of meat placed between bread. On the other hand, it doesn’t look like any other sandwich, most of which are uniform in shape. One way of thinking about it: If you take the turkey out of a turkey sandwich, it’s just turkey. But “hot dog” can refer to both the sausage itself and the larger assemblage of which it’s the most important ingredient, lending credence to the idea that the humble hot dog is in a category of its own. Still, Merriam-Webster has gone so far as to declare the hot dog a sandwich, so are you willing to go against the dictionary on this one?