american

american — adjective

1. connected with the United States — its people, places, products, culture, or gov

1.adjectiveA1
Definition

connected with the United States — its people, places, products, culture, or government.

Example

Ilya drives a big American truck made in Detroit.

describes products and goods made in the USA

Priya married an American man from Oregon last summer.

describes a person's nationality (USA)

Common collocations
  • American citizen
  • American culture
  • American dream
  • American football
  • American president
Synonyms
  • US

    more formal, often used before nouns like 'US president' in news writing

  • Stateside

    informal, used by Americans abroad to mean 'back in the USA'

Usage Note

Most often refers to the USA, not the wider continent. When a learner needs to be precise about North or South America as a continent, use sense 2 or say 'from Canada / Mexico / Brazil' etc.

Common Mistakes

I am american.
I am American.
nationality adjectives are always written with a capital letter.
an american-style breakfast
an American-style breakfast
keep the capital A even inside a compound.

2. connected with the whole continent of North America or South America, including

2.adjectiveB1
Definition

connected with the whole continent of North America or South America, including countries such as Canada, Mexico, Brazil and Argentina.

Example

Llamas and jaguars are two well-known American animals.

wildlife native to the continents of the Americas

The professor studies ancient American civilizations like the Aiko and Inca.

refers to peoples or cultures across the Americas

Common collocations
  • South American
  • North American
  • Latin American
  • Native American
  • Central American
Synonyms
  • Pan-American

    formal, stresses unity across all countries of the Americas

Usage Note

Often appears as 'North American', 'South American', 'Latin American', or 'Native American' to avoid being mistaken for sense 1 (USA-only). Distinguish from sense 1 by checking whether the context covers more than just the United States.

Common Mistakes

Brazil is an american country.
Brazil is a South American country.
without a region word, readers usually assume you mean the USA.

american — noun

Word family

  • America
    nounA1
  • Americana
    nounC2
  • Americanize
    verbC1
  • Americanization
    nounC1
  • Americanism
    nounC1
  • un-American
    adjectiveC2

Synonym discussion

Sense: adjective/1

All four point to the United States, but they differ sharply in tone and use. 'American' is the everyday neutral choice and works in almost any sentence — 'an American singer', 'American food'. 'US' is shorter and more bureaucratic, so it shows up before nouns in news writing and official titles: 'the US president', 'US forces'. 'Stateside' is informal and almost adverbial; Americans living abroad use it for 'back home in the USA' — 'I'll fly Stateside next month'. 'Yankee' is loaded: in the southern United States it can mean a northerner, while outside the country it is a casual, sometimes mocking, label for any American. Compare 'an American tourist' (neutral), 'a US tourist' (newspaper-like), and 'a Yankee tourist' (joking). For learners, stick with 'American' unless the register clearly calls for one of the others.

American ↗US ↗StatesideYankee ↗

Common collocations

Nouns

  • American citizen
  • American culture
  • American dream
  • American football
  • American history
  • American president
  • American English

Adverbs

  • typically American
  • distinctly American
  • uniquely American

Phrases

Prepositions

  • American to the core
  • American by birth
  • American in style

Etymology

ItalianLatinEnglish

The word entered English in the late 1500s from 'America', the Latinised form of the first name of the Italian explorer Amerigo Vespucci, who realised that the lands Columbus had reached were a separate continent rather than part of Asia. A 1507 map by the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller printed 'America' across the New World in Vespucci's honour. At first 'American' meant any inhabitant of the continents; only after the United States was founded in 1776 did the word narrow in everyday use to mean a citizen of that new country.