• Am.,Amer.(abbr.);Americanian(humorous);Murican(pejorative or humorous)

FromAmerica +‎-n. compareLatinamericānus.

• IPA^(key):/əˈmɛɹ.ɪ.kən/,(rural US)IPA^(key):/əˈmɝ.ə.kən/

• Audio(UK):

  (file)

• (weak vowel merger)IPA^(key):/əˈmɛɹ.ə.kən/,/əˈmɛɹ.kən/

American (pluralAmericans)

2. Acitizen ornational of theUnited States of America.
   • 1852 July 5,Frederick Douglass,speech to the Ladies' Anti-Slavery Society, Rochester, New York:

     Americans! your republican politics, not less than your republican religion, are flagrantly inconsistent. You boast of your love of liberty, your superior civilization, and your pure Christianity, while the whole political power of the nation... is solemnly pledged to support and perpetuate the enslavement of three millions of your countrymen.

   • 1941,George Orwell,The Lion and the Unicorn, Pt. I:

     ...the British ruling class obviously could not admit to themselves that their usefulness was at an end. Had they done that they would have had to abdicate. For it was not possible for them to turn themselves into mere bandits, like theAmerican millionaires, consciously clinging to unjust privileges and beating down opposition by bribery and tear-gas bombs. After all, they belonged to a class with a certain tradition, they had been to public schools where the duty of dying for your country, if necessary, is laid down as the first and greatest of the Commandments.

   • 1984 Aug. 11,Ronald Reagan, soundcheck for aweekly address:

     My fellowAmericans, I'm pleased to tell you today that I've signed legislation that will outlawRussia forever.We begin bombing in five minutes.

   • 2015 October 30,The Graham Norton Show, season18, episode 6:

     Graham Norton: But the people coming up to you now, like theAmericans, well, you know, theAmericans, they're notshy, theAmericans.
     Maggie Smith: No. Well, no but I don't go anywhere where really theycan get at me. It's usually in museums and art galleries and things, so that limits things. I keep away from there, andHarrod's I don't go near.

   Roughly two-thirds ofAmericans default to theGeneralAmerican accent, with other dialects likeSouthern,AAVE, andChicano usually being considered lower prestige outside of entertainment and politics.

4. Anyinhabitant of theAmericas.
6. (historical) Acitizen orinhabitant ofBritish America.
8. (archaic) Anindigenousinhabitant of theAmericas.[from 16th c.]

   Hyponyms:American Indian,Native American

   • 1711,Joseph Addison,The Spectator, page56:

     TheAmericans believe that all creatures have souls.

   • [2012,Jonathan Keates, ‘Mon Père, ce héros’,Literary Review, 402:

     Within a few months the ‘slave Alexandre’ had been successfully transformed into what, across theChannel, was called a ‘blackamoordandy’.Parisians preferred the more politely euphemistic term ‘American’. ]

10. (informal,humorous,colloquial) Thedialect ofEnglish spoken in and around the contiguous United States of America.
    • 1871, United States. Commission of Inquiry to Santo Domingo,Report, with the Introductory Message of the President, Special Reports Made to the Commission, State Papers Furnished by the Dominican Government, and the Statements of Over Seventy Witnesses, page268:

      -A . Spanish ; my mother and father speakAmerican ; my brothers and sisters speak Spanish ; when he is in the house , we speak American ; we have American prayers at night before we go to bed . Q. Is that usual in the families of the […]

    • Francis E. Clark, in:
      1896,The North American Review, volume163, page28:

      “Do you speakAmerican,” then asked the lady.
      “Oh, naow,” he replied with a still stronger emphasis.
      “But wouldn't you like to learn American?" persisted the lady.
      “Oh, naow, thanks," answered this sturdy little patriot. […]

    • 1945, Clarence I. Chatto, Alice L. Halligan,The Story of the Springfield Plan:

      The fact that they speakAmerican and don ' t wear German uniforms makes them more dangerous than the Jerries themselves . What does your Springfield Plan do about them ? Here is a fighting challenge . In the light of this challenge the […]

    • 1909, Ambrose Bierce,Write it Right:

      Donate forGive. GoodAmerican, but not good English.

    • 1942, Rebecca West,Black Lamb and Grey Falcon, Canongate, published2006, page756:

      We sat down in the central square and drank coffee and a man came up and spoke to us inAmerican.

    • 1959,Anthony Burgess,Beds in the East (The Malayan Trilogy), published1972, page490:

      "Where do you keep your cash, bub?" asked Idris hoarsely. HisAmerican was better than Hassan's English.

    • 1998, Jim Kouf, Ross LaManna,Rush Hour, New Line Cinema:

      JAMES CARTER: Mr. Rice-a-Roni; don't even speakAmerican.

    • 2014, David Ayer,Fury, Columbia Pictures:

      DON COLLIER: This is an American tank; we talkAmerican.

12. (clipping of)American cheese.

    Q: What kinds of cheese do you have? A: We haveAmerican, Swiss, cheddar, provolone, or wiz.

14. (rail transport) Asteam locomotive of the4-4-0wheel arrangement.

     

     4-4-0 on Wikipedia
16. (uncountable,USprinting,rare,dated) Asize oftypesmaller thanGerman, 1-pointtype.

• Within most English dialects,American now refers particularly to the people of the most populous English-speaking country in the Americas, the United States of America. Other senses now typically require qualifiers:Central American,Native American, etc. Some speakers maintain separate idiolects, however, includingsome Native Americans. Many Latin Americans alsopointedly maintain Brazilian Portuguese and European Portuguese's preference for usingAméricas to refer to the Americas generally, andestado-unidense andestadounidense when refering to both the country and its inhabitants.
• Usage of unqualifiedAmerican as a language separate from or in place ofEnglish, though once sincere, is now typically considered a sign of poor education or used to mock others' supposed ignorance, parochialism, or excessive nationalism.

• (person from the U.S.):Yank(UK & Commonwealth);Ameritard(derogatory),Seppo(pejorative);USian,Usonian,United Statian,US-American,United Statesian(rare); see alsoThesaurus:American
• (person from the Americas):Western Hemispherian,New Worlder(uncommon)

• SeeThesaurus:North,South, &Native American

American (comparativemoreAmerican,superlativemostAmerican)

2. Of, from, orpertaining to theUnited States of America,its people, orits culture.

   He married anAmerican woman in order to get anAmerican passport.

   Thanksgiving is anAmerican tradition.

   • 1851 November 14,Herman Melville, chapter 1, inMoby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.:Harper & Brothers; London:Richard Bentley,→OCLC:

     Should you ever be athirst in the greatAmerican desert, try this experiment, if your caravan happen to be supplied with a metaphysical professor.

   • 1964,John F. Kennedy, “Waves of Immigration-the Post-Revolutionary Forces”, inA Nation of Immigrants‎^[1], Revised and Enlarged edition,Harper & Row,→LCCN,→OCLC,page17:

     Each new wave of immigration helped meet the needs ofAmerican development and made its distinctive contribution to theAmerican character.

   • 2019 April 14, Jennifer Welsh Zeiter, “PuttingAmerican Flags on Police Cars Sparks Backlash in Laguna Beach”, inLos Angeles Times::

     ...they cannot see through their current biases to realize that a police vehicle with theAmerican flag is the ultimateAmerican expression...

4. (uncommon) Of, from, orpertaining to theAmericas.

   This is pureAmerican powder from the foothills ofColombia.

6. (historical) Of, from, orpertaining toBritish North America.
8. (archaic) Of, from, orpertaining to theindigenousinhabitants of theAmericas.

   Hyponyms:American Indian,Native American

10. (finance, of an option,not comparable)Able to beexercised onanydate between itsissue andexpiry.
    • 2009,John C. Hull,Options, Futures, and other Derivatives (Seventh Edition), Pearson Education, page182:

      All of these trade on the Chicago Board Options Exchange. Most of the contracts are European. An exception is the OEX contract on the S&P 100, which isAmerican.

    • 2009, Shih-Feng Huang, Meihui Guo,Applied Quantitative Finance (Second Edition), Springer, page295:

      Multi-dimensional option pricing becomes an important topic in financial markets (Franker et al., 2008). Among which, theAmerican-type derivative (e.g. the Bermudan option) pricing is a challenging problem.

    • 2010, Johnathan Mun,Modeling Risk + DVD: Applying Monte Carlo Risk Simulation, Strategic Real Options, Stochastic Forecasting, and Portfolio Optimization (Second Edition), John Wiley & Sons:

      Based on the analyses throughout the case study, it is recommended that the use of a model that assumes an ESO is European style when, in fact, the option isAmerican style with the other exotic variables should not be permitted, as this substantially overstates compensation expenses.

See above.

• (from or related to the USA):Yank(UK & Commonwealth);USian,USAian,Usanian,Usonian,United Statian,US American,United Statesian(rare)
• (from or related to the Americas):Western Hemispherian

• SeeThesaurus:North,South, &Native American

• (timing of option exercise):Bermudan,Canary,European,Verde

American

1. Atownship inAllen County,Ohio,United States.

• in camera,Cinerama,Camerina,Carêmian,marcaine,amacrine