# America

> English word · Proper noun · IPA /əˈmɛɹ.ɪ.kə/ · frequency rank #603

## Definitions
1. A supercontinent consisting of North America, Central America and South America regarded as a whole; in full, the Americas.
2. A country in North America; in full, United States of America.
3. A female given name.
4. A town in Limburg, Netherlands.

## Etymology
Etymology tree
Proto-Indo-European *h₃emh₃-
Proto-Germanic *amalą
Proto-Indo-European *h₃reǵ-
Proto-Indo-European *-s
Proto-Indo-European *h₃rḗǵs
Proto-Celtic *rīxsbor.
Proto-Germanic *rīks
Proto-Germanic *Amalarīksder.
Proto-Indo-European *ḱey-
Proto-Indo-European *-mos
Proto-Indo-European *ḱóymos
Proto-Indo-European *tḱóymos
Proto-Germanic *haimaz
▲
Proto-Germanic *rīks
Proto-Germanic *Haimarīksder.?
Italian Amerigoder.
New Latin Americalbor.
English America
Learned borrowing from New Latin America, feminine Latinized form of the Italian first name of Amerigo Vespucci (1454–1512). Amerigo is an Italian name derived from a Germanic language and is etymologically related to Henry and Emmerich. The earliest known use of America for the (South) American continent is on a 1507 map by Martin Waldseemüller; see Naming of the Americas for more.
Although this is the most widely accepted derivation, it has also been suggested that it could originate from the name of the Amerrisque mountains in Nicaragua (from Mayan), and another disputed theory is that it derives from the surname of Richard Amerike (1440–1503), whose surname is an anglicised form of Welsh ap Meurig (“son of Meurig”), from Old Welsh Mouric, which could be a rendition of Latin Mauritius (compare Maurice).

## Easily confused with
- **American** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/america-vs-american)
- **Americas** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/america-vs-americas)
- **Americana** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/america-vs-americana)
- **americano** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/america-vs-americano)
- **Africa** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/africa-vs-america)
- **Amelia** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/amelia-vs-america)

## Common misspellings (9)
`aemrica`, `ameirca`, `amercia`, `ameriac`, `americca`, `amerrica`, `ammerica`, `amreica`, `maerica`

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/america