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• African American
  African American

  noun

  an American with Black African ancestry.
• African-American
  African-American

  noun

  an American of African descent

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

See Examples For:

African American African-American

Montgomery, the state capital, is over 60% African American.

From BBC ● Jul. 18, 2026

The son of an African American father and Japanese mother, Roberts is the first minority manager in Dodgers history.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 1, 2026

The crew will be rounded out by African American Andre Douglas and US astronaut of Salvadoran descent Frank Rubio.

From Barron's ● Jun. 9, 2026

Many projects, like the Martin Luther King Jr. memorial and African American history museum, began as the deferred dreams of ordinary citizens.

From Slate ● May 18, 2026

It could be clearly seen in the writings of African American leaders such as Richard R. Wright, a minister and editor of a black church newspaper in Philadelphia.

From "1919 The Year That Changed America" by Martin W. Sandler

"His background is everything - European, African-American, Hispanic and indigenous as well," he says.

From BBC ● Aug. 1, 2026

“We’re doing very well with the Black jobs, African-American jobs,” he said.

From Salon ● Jul. 12, 2026

The show became a pop-culture phenomenon that elevated Black artists and celebrated African-American culture.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 9, 2026

A besieged single woman raising her 8-year-old son in Harlem, N.Y., stands at the heart of Ann Petry’s “The Street,” the first novel by an African-American woman to sell more than a million copies.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 19, 2026

Plessy turned out to be a heart-wrenching case about an African-American man named Homer Adolph Plessy who wanted to take a ride on the train in 1892.

From "March Forward, Girl" by Melba Pattillo Beals