# American

> English word · Noun · IPA /əˈmɛɹ.ɪ.kən/ · frequency rank #303

## Definitions
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.

## 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.

## Easily confused with
- **Americas** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/american-vs-americas)
- **Americana** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/american-vs-americana)
- **americano** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/american-vs-americano)
- **America** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/america-vs-american)
- **African** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/african-vs-american)

## Common misspellings (11)
`aemrican`, `ameircan`, `amercian`, `ameriacn`, `americann`, `americcan`, `americna`, `amerrican`, `ammerican`, `amreican`, `maerican`

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