1890–95, < German: Frankfort sausage; see -er 1
A frankfurter is another name for a hot dog. It's the mild sausage served on a bun that you eat while watching a baseball game. Depending where you're from, you might call a frankfurter a frank, a wiener, or a dog. Frankfurters are pink or red sausages made of meat trimmings packed inside a thin, edible casing, and served with mustard, ketchup, or relish. The name, adopted in English during the late 19th century, reflects the German heritage of all variations on the frankfurter — it comes from Frankfurter wurst, "sausage of Frankfurt."
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
She soon was hired by fellow Kentuckian and Postmaster Fred C. Alexander of the frankfurter debacle.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 23, 2025
The frankfurter favorites: Joey Chestnut and Miki Sudo are favored to win today’s Nathan’s hot dog eating contest.
From New York Times ● Jul. 4, 2023
He admits to having a similar maudlin blindspot when it comes to Detroit's Coney dogs — a beef frankfurter on a bun smothered in beanless chili, mustard, onions and shredded cheese.
From Salon ● Sep. 27, 2022
The annual Fourth of July frankfurter fest normally happens outside Nathan’s flagship shop in Brooklyn’s Coney Island neighborhood.
From Seattle Times ● Jul. 4, 2021
While I was pondering the matter and staring up at the window from which the can had been hurled, an old vagrant approached the wagon and pleaded for a frankfurter.
From "A Confederacy of Dunces" by John Kennedy Toole
Rexford Tugwell, Felix Frankfurter, Adolf Berle—acolytes of the brain trust that encircled the president—were plucked from schools like Columbia and Harvard.
From Slate ● Mar. 17, 2025
The speaker was Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who was at home in Albany with his friend and advisor Felix Frankfurter, monitoring radio reports of a political disaster unfolding in Herbert Hoover’s Washington.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 29, 2024
“I did legit think that it was flavorful,” said FoodPrint director Jerusha Klemperer, a sometime vegetarian who opted for a Field Roast Classic Smoked Plant-Based Frankfurter.
From Salon ● Apr. 16, 2024
Wing tips gleaming, my hair still damp, I was flipping through the Frankfurter Allgemeine when she rolled her unthinkable bicycle in.
From "Middlesex: A Novel" by Jeffrey Eugenides
Dot Kenway’s birthday came at this time, and that was the date set for the Frankfurter Party.
From The Corner House Girls Under Canvas How they reached Pleasant Cove and what happened afterward by Hill, Grace Brooks
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
