That's a strange source of confusion. A plain cheeseburger without cheese has a different name: a plain hamburger. I can't imagine saying "cheeseburger", no matter what qualifying words around it, and being surprised it included cheese.

I have a very funny childhood memory of being in a McDonalds with my Cub Scout chapter; one of the boys ordered a "cheeseburger with no cheese", which - of course - was delivered with cheese, and the boy's father escalated the 'situation' to management.

Even more confusing when McDonalds calls them "burgers with cheese". Cheese seems to be a uniquely distinct event.

Also "I'll take a number 3 meal plain" is void of an actual subject for the type of burger.

> Even more confusing when McDonalds calls them "burgers with cheese".

That's a fun regional difference with McDonalds it seems, we definitely have (literally) "Cheeseburger" as a independent item on the menu compared to "Hamburger" here in Spain: https://i.imgur.com/XDNuiUW.png

That's quite funny actually, Spain tends to translate everything and have everything in English, dubbed, but apparently the McDonalds Cheeseburger got to remain, and wasn't renamed to "Hamburguesa con Queso" as one would have expected :)

McDonald's main menu items aren't actually called "cheeseburgers"; they're called "burgers with cheese". To me, this reads that "cheese" is a "topping" on the burger.

Further, they _only_ showcase the "burger with cheese variant" in their combos and special. This further drives home that you should be thinking about cheese in the same way as toppings.

I don't know exactly, anymore, because I haven't been to a McD for so long.

But one thing I know for sure, in Germany they are called Cheeseburger, not only called, but written as such on the menu.

You're conflating two different things. A plain cheeseburger obviously will include cheese by definition. A "plain" at a "burger place" would mean a plain hamburger. Both are correct usages of the adjective "plain" because the nouns they're describing are inherently different.

The challenge is that there's an indeterminable point at which the "cheese" stops being an integral part of the burger.

For a "cheeseburger" cheese is obviously integral. For a Big Mac, it's less clear but a "plain" Big Mac usually includes cheese.

For a fancy place's "deluxe Wagyu beef burger" that has cheese/truffles/a bunch of other stuff, a "plain" version will likely not have cheese.

Wouldn't a "plain cheeseburger" in those high-end burger places where it means no cheese just be a hamburger?