African American

American  

[af-ri-kuhn uh-mer-i-kuhn] / ˈæf rɪ kən əˈmɛr ɪ kən /

Sometimes Aframerican

noun

1. an American with Black African ancestry.

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adjective

1. of or relating to African Americans.

2. African-American, occurring between the United States and Africa.

   Several international charities are promoting African-American cooperation in expanding access to safe drinking water.

African-American British  

noun

1. an American of African descent

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adjective

1. of or relating to Americans of African descent

Usage

During the 1980s, many Americans sought to display pride in their immigrant origins. Linguistically, this brought about a brief period of short-form hyphenated designations, like Italo-Americans and Greco-Americans. The Black community also embraced the existing term Afro-American, a label that emphasized geographical or ethnic heritage over skin color. The related label, African American, also saw an increase in use among activists in the 1970s and 1980s. African American was even more widely adopted in the late 1980s and throughout the 1990s after high-profile Black leaders advocated for it, arguing, as Jesse Jackson did, that the term brought “proper historical context” and had “cultural integrity.” See Black ¹.

This is the currently preferred term in the US for people of African ancestry

Etymology

Origin of African American

An Americanism dating back to 1780–90

Example Sentences

Fairfax was once considered a rising star in the Democratic Party, after he was elected Virginia’s lieutenant governor in 2017, making him only the second African American elected to statewide office.

From Salon • Apr. 16, 2026

In 2020, he became the first African American to take part on a long-duration mission to the ISS.

From Barron's • Mar. 25, 2026

Part of the organization’s mission was not only to uplift African American storytelling through movement, but to also highlight Black culture from across the globe.

From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 24, 2026

The analysis included health data from 1,998 African American adults living in both urban and rural areas of Jackson, Mississippi, who participated in the Jackson Heart Study.

From Science Daily • Mar. 19, 2026

We knew of the phenomenon called the Bradley effect, named for an African American candidate, Tom Bradley, who’d run for governor in California in the early 1980s.

From "Becoming" by Michelle Obama