America

[ uh-mer-i-kuh ]

/ əˈmɛr ɪ kə /

noun

United States.

North America.

South America.

Also called the Americas. North and South America, considered together.

RELATED WORDS

Columbia, U.S., U.S.A., US, USA

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for america

The simple, awful truth is that free speech has never been particularly popular in America.
How the PC Police Threaten Free Speech|Nick Gillespie|January 9, 2015|DAILY BEAST
It would became one of the first great mysteries in the United States of America, as it was only then 23 years old.
New York’s Most Tragic Ghost Loves Minimalist Swedish Fashion|Nina Strochlic|January 8, 2015|DAILY BEAST
Asian-Americans are a group of persuadable swing voters, growing faster than any other group in America today.
Asian-Americans Are The New Florida|Tim Mak|January 8, 2015|DAILY BEAST
Latinos, the fastest growing minority group in America, are even more underrepresented in Congress.
The Unbearable Whiteness of Congress|Dean Obeidallah|January 8, 2015|DAILY BEAST

Myerson herself appears to have bought into that stigma, offering mixed to negative views on the Miss America pageant.
Why Was Bess Myerson the First and Last Jewish Miss America?|Emily Shire|January 7, 2015|DAILY BEAST
It was Luke Marner himself who was going to America, and was going to write home to clear him.
Through the Fray|G. A. Henty
It will win artists to a phase of the sublime in America which they have overlooked.
The Book of the National Parks|Robert Sterling Yard
America at large flattens the 'a', and says 'glass of water.'
Alonzo Fitz and Other Stories|Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens)
The supplies from America have been divided with the conscientious desire to see American generosity help as far as could be.
War Days in Brittany|Elsie Deming Jarves
Even in America, on an infinitely smaller scale, the question was old and unanswered.
The Education of Henry Adams|Henry Adams

British Dictionary definitions for america

America

/ (əˈmɛrɪkə) /

noun

short for the United States of America

Also called: the Americas the American continent, including North, South, and Central America

Word Origin for America

C16: from Americus, Latin form of Amerigo; after Amerigo Vespucci

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for america

America

1507, in Cartographer Martin Waldseemüller's treatise "Cosmographiae Introductio," from Modern Latin Americanus, after Amerigo Vespucci (1454-1512) who made two trips to the New World as a navigator and claimed to have discovered it. His published works put forward the idea that it was a new continent, and he was first to call it Novus Mundus "New World." Amerigo is more easily Latinized than Vespucci.

The name Amerigo is Germanic, said to derive from Gothic Amalrich, literally "work-ruler." The Old English form of the name has come down as surnames Emmerich, Emery, etc. The Italian fem. form merged into Amelia.

Colloquial pronunciation "Ameri-kay," not uncommon 19c., goes back to at least 1643 and a poem that rhymed the word with away. Amerika "U.S. society viewed as racist, fascist, oppressive, etc." first attested 1969; the spelling is German, but may also suggest the KKK.

It is interesting to remember that the song which is essentially Southern -- "Dixie" -- and that which is essentially Northern -- "Yankee Doodle" -- never really had any serious words to them. ["The Bookman," June 1910]

FREDONIA, FREDONIAN, FREDE, FREDISH, &c. &c.
These extraordinary words, which have been deservedly ridiculed here as well as in England, were proposed sometime ago, and countenanced by two or three individuals, as names for the territory and people of the United States. The general term American is now commonly understood (at least in all places where the English language is spoken,) to mean an inhabitant of the United States; and is so employed, except where unusual precision of language is required. [Pickering, 1816]

Culture definitions for america

“America”

An American patriotic hymn from the nineteenth century, sung to the tune of the national anthem of Great Britain, “God Save the Queen.” It begins, “My country, 'tis of thee.”

America

noun

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Examples from the Web for america

America

noun

Word Origin for America

America

“America”