American

Name: American, English Word Data
Creator: Wiktionary
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

/əˈmɛɹ.ɪ.kən/

//əˈmɛɹ.ɪ.kən// noun

By PlainSpell · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) · analyzed September 3, 2026

The verdict

“American” has 11 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #303. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#303
frequency rank, English: 3,931
“A” headwords: 11
tracked misspellings: 5
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A citizen or national of the United States of America.

Corpus desk

Index EN-american · American · English

American · rank #303 · 11 variants · 5 confusables

FREQ-CORE #303
LEN-LONG 8 letters
VOW-4 4 vowels
CONFUS-MID 5 pairs
VAR-MID 11 variants
BOOK-MID 3,931
PHOTO-FINISH actually

Nearest frequency peer: actually (-1 rank slots)

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.

went

99,701
yes

99,700
actually

99,699
American

99,698
later

99,697
less

99,696

What this shows “American” sits among these FrequencyWords peers; misspelling depth is tracked separately in the edit-distance chart.

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

American vs Americas

88% similar

American vs Americana

89% similar

American vs americano

78% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for American
Property	Value
Headword	American
Language	English
Part of speech	Noun
IPA	/əˈmɛɹ.ɪ.kən/
Letters	8
Frequency rank	#303
Misspellings tracked	11
Confusable pairs	5
Source	Wiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency seat of misspelling magnet “American”

This scale runs from the tiny cluster of words that carry ordinary speech (left) to the long tail of words almost nobody reaches for (right).Americanlands here:

#303

#1#100#1K#10K#100K

← used constantlyrarely used →

Scale is logarithmic (each tick is 10× rarer). Same rarity band neighbours include “actually” (#302), “later” (#304), “yes” (#301). Among 3,931 “A” headwords, “American” is #303. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 11 spelling variants around American (IPA /əˈmɛɹ.ɪ.kən/), anoun. Corpus frequency is #303 among 3,931 “A” headwords. Wiktionary lists 9 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

Our generated misspelling index lists 11 likely wrong-spelling variants for American, with forms such as "aemrican", "ameircan", and "amercian". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 5 confusable-pair relationships, "Americas", "Americana", "americano", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.

Etymologically, the entry records: 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-… The correct English form is American, spelled A-M-E-R-I-C-A-N.

Definition

1
A citizen or national of the United States of America.
2
Any inhabitant of the Americas.
3
A citizen or inhabitant of British America.
4
An indigenous inhabitant of the Americas.
5
An inhabitant of French or Spanish New World colonies.
6
The dialect of English spoken in and around the contiguous United States of America.
7
American cheese.
8
A steam locomotive of the 4-4-0 wheel arrangement.
9
A size of type smaller than German, 1-point type.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

Americans! your republican politics, not less than your republican religion, are flagrantly inconsistent. You boast of your love of liberty, your superior civilization, and your pure Christianity, while the whole political power of the nation... is solemnly pledged to support and perpetuate the enslavement of three millions of your countrymen.
...the British ruling class obviously could not admit to themselves that their usefulness was at an end. Had they done that they would have had to abdicate. For it was not possible for them to turn themselves into mere bandits, like the American millionaires, consciously clinging to unjust privileges and beating down opposition by bribery and tear-gas bom…

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 Middle English -n English -n English American From America + -n. compare Latin amerī̆canus.

Synonyms

Yank Ameritard Seppo USian Usonian United Statian US-American United Statesian Western Hemispherian New Worlder American Americunt septic Usanian US-ian Usonan US American U.S. American Yankee

This word in other languages

americano(Español)Américain(Français)Amerikaner(Deutsch)americano(Português)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

aemrican
ameircan
amercian
ameriacn
americann
americcan
americna
amerrican
ammerican
amreican
maerican

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of American - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.

Edit distance from "American"

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "American"?

"American" is spelled A-M-E-R-I-C-A-N. The IPA pronunciation is /əˈmɛɹ.ɪ.kən/.

What does "American" mean?

As a noun, "American" means: A citizen or national of the United States of America.

What words are commonly confused with "American"?

"American" is commonly confused with "Americas", "Americana", "americano". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.

How do you pronounce "American"?

The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "American" is /əˈmɛɹ.ɪ.kən/. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.

What is the origin of the word "American"?

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.

Similar English words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "American", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked English headwords with 8 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

actually#302 national#290 children#318 everyone#319

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (11 here; floor ≥5).

country11 variants working11 variants nothing11 variants friends11 variants