American Gothic

American  

noun

1. a painting (1930) by Grant Wood.

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American Gothic Cultural  

1. A painting by the twentieth-century American artist Grant Wood. It shows a gaunt farmer and a woman standing in front of a farmhouse; the man holds a pitchfork, and both wear severe expressions.

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American Gothic has been the subject of many parodies on magazine covers and in advertising.

Example Sentences

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American Gothic

It’s a story decidedly in the American Gothic mode.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 7, 2026

It’s a happy accident that, at 71, Gibson looks like a more benign version of the pitchfork-toting male figure in Grant Wood’s painting American Gothic.

From The Guardian ● Jan. 11, 2020

The painting American Gothic by Grant Wood, depicting a stern-looking farming couple is seared into our collective consciousness as what it means to be an American, and what traditional American values are.

From Scientific American ● Nov. 21, 2018

I grew up just 15 miles from the American Gothic House and never knew of its existence until I returned to my birthplace for a visit in 2010.

From New York Times ● Mar. 18, 2018

Imagine a Muslim version of the American Gothic couple, with a beard on the husband and a black hijab on the wife.

From "Saints and Misfits" by S.K. Ali