South Tyneside's evening meal is officially teatime as hundreds vote in our poll

We decided to answer the age-old question once and for all and asked you: “An evening meal has different meanings across the UK, with half of people calling it 'dinner', and almost as many describing it as 'tea', according to a new study. What's it called in your house?”

More than 750 people voted and the answer was a landslide, with a whopping 85 per cent (quite rightly) saying the answer was ‘Tea.’

Comments on our Facebook page left little doubt where loyalties lay.

Jen Pass went into a slightly scary amount of detail: “Tea. Lunch is cold and in the day, dinner is hot and in the day, tea is cold or hot in the evening, unless it’s a buffet style, in which case it is a picky tea.

“You can have a picky tea anytime of the day.”

Lee Chow was having no truck with dinner being any time other than midday: “It’s breakfast, dinner, tea, that’s it..nothing else,” he said, while Melanie Sharp admitted: “I think I'm the only one that says lunch and tea.” 😁

Barbara Campbell revealed one of the challenges of a mixed marriage: “I call it dinner but my husband calls it tea,” she said.

“I am a Scot, he is from Shields.”

And Michael Jones said: “Although it’s always tea time at home, I work worldwide and when I say it’s tea time, meaning dinner time, I can get strange looks.”