Word.ws English Dictionary

All-American

Syllables: all-A·mer·i·can/ˌɔːl əˈmɛɹ.ɪ.kən/US/ˌɔl əˈmɛɹ.ɪ.kən/

All-American adjective: of a person or a team, or some other thing: regarded as the best in the United States; of a team, composed entirely of members who are each the best from their state, league, or region. Also the alternative letter-case form of all-American.

Adjective (1)

All-American (not comparable)

  1. (US) Of a person or a team, or some other thing: regarded as the best in the United States; of a team, composed entirely of members who are each the best from their state, league, or region.
    • He was an All-American basketball player last year.
    • After having conducted a country-wide poll of experts, Vanity Fair has chosen a truly All-American Collegiate Basketball Team. The nine picked is the result of the combined opinions of sporting editors, college coaches, graduate managers and old players from Cambridge, to Palo Alto and from...1915 July, “Vanity Fair’s All-American College Basketball Team”, in Frank Crowninshield, editor, Vanity Fair, volume 4, number 5, New York, N.Y.: Vanity Fair Publishing Company, →OCLC, page 30
  2. (US) Of a regiment or division: composed of members from every state in the Union.

Noun (1)

All-American (plural All-Americans)

  1. (US) A person or a team, or some other thing, regarded as the best in the United States; a team composed entirely of members who are each the best from their state, league, or region.
    • [Bennie] Oosterbaan won letters in football, basketball, and baseball, and was selected as an All-American end for three successive years.1930, “Athletics”, in George E. Leonard, editor, Michiganensian of 1930, Ann Arbor, Mich.: Published by the Senior Class of the University of Michigan, →OCLC, page 191
    • Among the players he [Ward Lambert] coached were the legendary John Wooden, a three-time All-American; three-time All-American Charles "Stretch" Murphy; and All-Americans Don White, Ray "Candy" Miller, George Spradling, Norm Cotton, Emmett Lowery, Robert Kessler, Jewell Young, and Paul Hoffman.2002, “Standing Tall”, in Purdue Reamer Club, compiler, A University of Tradition: The Spirit of Purdue, West Lafayette, Ind.: Purdue University Press, →ISBN, page 92

Adjective (2) capitalized: all-American

all-American (not comparable)

  1. Comprising things that are wholly from the United States of America; completely made in the United States.
    • "All-American" Transformers. Perfected first, from the stand-point of correct engineering, by proper turns radio, impedance and shielding—then, in our latest models, given the finishing touches of outward beauty that the more critical eye demanded. […] Your dealer has "All-American" Transformers.1922 December, “The New ‘All-American’ Audio Frequency Transformers [advertisement]”, in Hugo Gernsback, editor, Radio News, volume 4, number 6, New York, N.Y.: Experimenter Publishing, →OCLC, page...
    • The DC-10 with a GE engine would be wrongfully touted as an all-American airplane. The GE engine was part French. The DC-10 had Italian fuselage sections. There was little awareness of the subcontracts with offshore suppliers.[2001], James West, chapter 8, in The End of an Era: My Story of the L-1011, [Philadelphia, Pa.]: Xlibris, →ISBN, page 71
  2. Regarded as embodying the ideal qualities of the United States; typically American; (specifically) of a person: courageous, heroic; honest, wholesome, etc.
    • The [Davy] Crockett revival of the 1950's engineered by Walt Disney presented an all-American boy scout type as a mass-culture hero.1968, Richard M[ercer] Dorson, “Folklore in Relation to American Studies”, in Ray B[roadus] Browne, Richard H. Crowder, Virgil L. Lokke, William T. Stafford, editors, Frontiers of American Culture...
    • Amelia [Earhart] looked the part of an all-American girl—pretty, confident yet slightly demure, exhibiting not a trace of brashness.2010, Kathleen C. Winters, “Off and Running”, in Amelia Earhart: The Turbulent Life of an American Icon, New York, N.Y.: Palgrave Macmillan, →ISBN, page 89
  3. Alternative letter-case form of All-American.
    • The highly anticipated all-American matchup between Taylor Fritz and Frances Tiafoe — marking the first US Open semifinals between two US men in nearly 20 years — will cost you quite a few Honey Deuces to attend.2024 September 6, Jordan Valinsky, “Ticket prices for the all-American men’s matchup at the US Open are surging”, in CNN

Noun (2) capitalized: all-American

all-American (plural all-Americans)

  1. A person or thing regarded as embodying the ideal qualities of the United States of America; typically American; (specifically) a person from the United States who is courageous, heroic, honest, wholesome, etc.
    • He was regarded by the other soldiers as an all-American for his courage in battle.
    • When asked whether Gap, Inc. would still gain acceptance as an "all-American" if its brand manufacturing process was switched significantly abroad, given its customer loyalty and the reputation that it has already established, respondents said the brand would probably no longer be seen as...2013, Eulalia Wycoff, Rajeev Sooreea, “How ‘American’ are ‘All-American’ Brands?: A Case of Gap, Inc. as ‘Made in America’ Brand”, in Anshu Saxena Arora, editor, International Business Realisms...
  2. (abbreviation, ellipsis) Ellipsis of all-American athlete, player, team (chiefly sports), all-American boy, girl, person, or family (loosely, transferred sense)
  3. Alternative letter-case form of All-American.
    Synonyms:
    All-America

Also used as

All-American is also the alternative letter-case form of all-American.

All-American is also the ellipsis of All-American athlete.

Examples of All-American in a sentence

  • After having conducted a country-wide poll of experts, Vanity Fair has chosen a truly All-American Collegiate Basketball Team.1915 July, “Vanity Fair’s All-American College Basketball Team”, in Frank Crowninshield, editor, Vanity Fair, volume 4, number 5, New York...
  • In 1888 [Walter] Camp selected the first All-American team, an exercise that has continued into the twenty-first century.2012, Larzer Ziff, “America as Middle Class: Adolescence, Frank Merriwell, Penrod”, in All-American Boy (Discovering America; 4), Austin...
  • [T]he All-American [American football player] in [Walter] Camp's sense is not typical but superior, the best in America at performing the specific role he has been assigned.2012, Larzer Ziff, “America as Middle Class: Adolescence, Frank Merriwell, Penrod”, in All-American Boy (Discovering America; 4), Austin...
  • I was named All-American that year and the actress Kim Novak was our host for the All-American luncheon and dinners.2014, Paul Hornung, Chuck Carlson, “Under the Golden Dome”, in The Paul Hornung Scrapbook, Chicago, Ill.: Triumph Books, →ISBN, page 43:

Synonyms of All-American

Forms of All-American

pluralAll-Americans
pluralall-Americans

Origin of All-American

From All- + American. Americanism first recorded in the 1880s; the substantive usage originating early on as an ellipsis of all-American athlete, player, team; thereafter transferred to apply broadly to people or things as in All-American boy, girl, family.

From all- + American. Americanism first recorded in the 1880s; the substantive usage originating early on as an ellipsis of all-American athlete, player, team; thereafter transferred to apply broadly to people or things as in All-American boy, girl, family.

Words formed from All-American

Questions about All-American

What does All-American mean?
All-American means of a person or a team, or some other thing: regarded as the best in the United States; of a team, composed entirely of members who are each the best from their state, league, or region.
How do you use All-American in a sentence?
After having conducted a country-wide poll of experts, Vanity Fair has chosen a truly All-American Collegiate Basketball Team.
What part of speech is All-American?
All-American can be an adjective or a noun.
How do you pronounce All-American?
All-American is pronounced /ˌɔːl əˈmɛɹ.ɪ.kən/ (UK).

Words near All-American in the dictionary

  1. all's one
  2. all's well that ends well
  3. all-
  4. all-a-mort
  5. All-America
  6. All-American
  7. all-Americanness
  8. All-Americans
  9. all-around
  10. all-arounder
  11. all-arounders

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: All-American (page history and authors); all-American (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-all-American.wav.

Cite this entry: “All-American.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/all-american. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.