Afro-American

noun

"afro-american" is a 12-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“Afro-American” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

Unranked
below top-frequency English
13
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A native or resident of the United States (an American) who is of African heritage.

Corpus desk

Index EN-afro-american · Afro-American · English

Afro-American · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
  • LEN-MEGA 13 letters
  • VOW-6 6 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-THIN "A" thin
  • PHOTO-UNK Peer pending

Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Key facts for Afro-American
PropertyValue
HeadwordAfro-American
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
Letters13
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “Afro-American” in English

Afro-Americansits beyond the 100,000 most-frequent English words, in the long tail of technical, archaic, or otherwise rare vocabulary where spelling doubt tends to strike hardest.

Beyond rank #100,000. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

Afro-American is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "A native or resident of the United States (an American) who is of African heritage.".

Zero misspellings are on record for Afro-American in our index, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.

Etymologically, the entry records: From Afro- + American. The correct English form is Afro-American, spelled A-F-R-O---A-M-E-R-I-C-A-N.

Definition

  1. 1
    A native or resident of the United States (an American) who is of African heritage.

Recorded use

Wiktionary example

These source excerpts show how Afro-American appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. That great battle was won, not because the victim of slavery was a negro, mulatto, or an Afro-American, but because the victim of slavery was a man and a brother to all other men, a child of God, and could claim with all mankind a common Father, and therefore should be recognized as an accountable being, a subject of government, and entitled to justice, l…

Etymology

From Afro- + American.

Synonyms

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "Afro-American"?
"Afro-American" is spelled A-F-R-O---A-M-E-R-I-C-A-N.
What does "Afro-American" mean?
As a noun, "Afro-American" means: A native or resident of the United States (an American) who is of African heritage.
What is the origin of the word "Afro-American"?
From Afro- + American. See the full etymology section above for more details.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list